Steelers Now
The Buffalo Bills have signed former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Deon Cain, the club announced on Monday. Cain had two separate stints with Buffalo in 2024.
Cain had a banner season in the UFL with the Birmingham Stallions, catching 29 passes for 514 yards (17.7 average) and six touchdowns. He also had six receptions for 124 yards (20.7 average) in the playoffs.
Cain re-signed with the Stallions on Feb. 11 after three NFL stints during the 2024 season. The 28-year-old signed with the Bills just one day before the joint practice between Pittsburgh and Buffalo at Acrisure Stadium last August. He did not play in the preseason game between the Steelers and Bills that week, but did appear in Buffalo’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 24, when he caught all three targets for 28 yards.
We have signed WR Deon Cain and released CB Daryl Porter Jr.#BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/16vf8LZSiL
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 28, 2025
Cain was released by the Bills in their final cut-down to 53 players on Aug. 30. He caught on with the Carolina Panthers, spending six weeks on their practice squad. He was cut by the Panthers on Oct. 15 without having appeared in a game. The Bills re-signed him to their practice squad on Oct. 31, but was again released on Dec. 3.
Cain spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons with the Steelers. A 6-foot-2, 202-pound Clemson alum, he was a sixth-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 2018. Cain spent a season and a half there before the Steelers signed him off the Indianapolis practice squad in 2019.
Cain played six games down the stretch run of that season with the Steelers, making three starts. He caught five passes for 72 yards. He returned to the Steelers in 2020, spending most of the season on the practice squad, but was elevated for the team’s Week 6 and Week 17 games.
Despite enduring through a number of transactions and three stints in spring football, that currently represents Cain’s last NFL regular-season action. The Steelers let Cain’s contract expire for 2021, and he bounced around the NFL in 2022 without appearing in a game.
He was with the Eagles for a second time in the 2023 offseason, but was cut coming out of camp and again played with Birmingham last spring, winning a title in the UFL, which was formed in 2024 out of a merger of the USFL and XFL.
Alan Saunders contributed reporting for this story.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Buffalo Bills Snap Up Ex-Steelers Wide Receiver
