Tennessee Tech linebacker Theron Gaines reportedly signs with Buffalo Bills as UDFA

Theron Gaines made Buffalo notice the same way he made FCS offenses notice, by living in the backfield. The Tennessee Tech linebacker reportedly signed with the Bills as an undrafted free agent after the 2026 NFL Draft, a move that came as Buffalo kept adding bodies to a 90-man roster that already included 10 draft picks and a batch of post-draft rookies.

Gaines is not arriving as a projection. He arrives with a résumé built on disruption. Tennessee Tech’s own bio says he earned Stats Perform FCS National Defensive Player of the Week, Big South-OVC Defensive Player of the Week and Tennessee Sports Writers Association Defensive Player of the Week honors in 2024 after torching Gardner-Webb for seven tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble in a 52-21 win. That kind of game travels. It tells NFL evaluators a linebacker can beat protection, finish at the quarterback and create a turnover all in the same afternoon.

The production only got louder from there. ESPN lists Gaines with 2025 totals of 81 tackles, 5.5 sacks and one interception, and another Tennessee-area report said he closed his career as a first-team FCS Football Central All-American. That same report put his final Tennessee Tech line at 14.5 tackles for loss, three fumble recoveries, 92 tackles and 6.5 sacks, all of it evidence of a defender who did more than chase highlight plays. He made his share of stops in space, but he also carried the kind of edge production that usually gets linebackers into camp.

That is the story Buffalo is betting on. The Bills added Gaines while also bringing in Ja’Mori Maclin, Desmond Reid, Bruno Fina, Max Tomczak, Mark Langston, Da’Metrius Weatherspoon, Jayden Flaker and Cade Denhoff, a clear sign Brandon Beane’s front office was still hunting for undervalued depth after the draft. For a team filling out the back end of the roster, Gaines fits the profile of an overlooked FCS linebacker who can survive on special teams, pressure the quarterback and make the first tackle on defense if given a shot.

His path also says plenty about where the league is looking. Gaines helped Tennessee Tech win its first outright conference championship in more than 50 years, then trained at D1 Combine Training with former teammates Tim Coutras and Daniel Rickert while waiting for his NFL opportunity. For Buffalo, that kind of production and trajectory is exactly the sort of FCS-to-NFL bet worth making.