Bills move Greg Dortch to 53-man roster as Jordan Hancock goes on IR

Buffalo converted Greg Dortch from its practice squad to the active roster Friday and placed defensive back Jordan Hancock on injured reserve. The Bills' transaction announcement makes the two moves official before Sunday's home game against the Chargers. Hancock missed both Thursday's and Friday's practices with a hamstring injury; Buffalo has not given a specific return date.

The immediate roster logic is clear. Dortch had already been elevated for Buffalo's first two games, operating principally as a returner rather than taking a regular offensive role. In those games he returned five punts for 46 yards and five kickoffs for 133, according to the club. An active-roster signing makes him available through the normal 53-man process instead of another game-day elevation. Hancock's IR placement creates the corresponding open place but requires him to miss at least four games, as independent local reporting from WGR notes.

The Bills' official public-relations account announced the paired move Friday. It is a roster transaction, not a statement that Dortch will take on a larger receiving workload. The difference matters to fantasy managers and anyone reading the transaction as a response to Buffalo's receiver injuries. D.J. Moore and Keon Coleman are both questionable for the Chargers game, and coach Joe Brady called them game-time decisions in the final injury report. Their availability will not be settled until the inactive list.

The secondary cost is also real. Hancock played limited snaps against Detroit after missing the opener, according to WGR. Buffalo's transaction guarantees an extended absence rather than merely ruling him out for Sunday. Brady's September 25 team video addressed the receiver contingency and Hancock's injury, but the team has not published a fixed depth-chart replacement for Hancock.

For roster tracking, the next checkpoints are Sunday's inactives for Moore and Coleman and the Bills' defensive back deployment against Los Angeles. Dortch has a secured active spot and a verified return role; any expanded target share is still a projection, not a completed personnel decision.