ORCHARD PARK - With the uncertainty of punter Sam Martin being able to recover from his hamstring injury, the Buffalo Bills signed NFL veteran Matt Haack to their practice squad Wednesday.

Haack was the Buffalo punter in 2021 and it was not a great year as he had a poor net average of 37.6 yards on 52 attempts. However, he was the best available option for the Bills because he was also the holder that season for placekicker Tyler Bass.

That operation - long snap, hold and kick - can be a tricky thing and needs to be buttoned up on game day, and the thinking from the Bills is that Haack has experience catching Reid Ferguson’s snaps and putting the ball down for Bass.

“Sam’s situation, just not really sure where that’s going to end up and so it gives us some flexibility there,” coach Sean McDermott said Wednesday. “There’s not really a change at this point to Sam’s status. We’ll just see how that goes as well.”

The Bills cleared a spot on their practice squad Tuesday when they released running back Leonard Fournette. More moves could be coming, both to the practice squad and active roster, given the lengthy Bills’ injury list.

“I landed (Tuesday) night, I think right before the snow started,” Haack said. “I did have a long travel day, but I managed to beat the weather so that was good. But it’s been great seeing everybody, catching up a little bit.”

Haack began his career with Miami and after four seasons, moved to Buffalo. In 2022 he was with the Colts and kicking much of the time in a dome certainly helped his net average as it went up to 39.6.

This year, he has been out of the league with the exception of one game for the Browns on Dec. 28 when their regular punter, another ex-Bill, Corey Bojorquez was injured.

“Being in this situation all year you just kind of always got to be by your phone,” he said. “You never know. Stay ready. Back home (in Arizona), I’ve been working out five days a week, kicking twice a week and just staying prepared, staying ready in case an opportunity like this comes. It is kind of surreal when my agent calls and say, ‘Hey, so and so wants to bring you in’ because it’s literally just happened so fast and you kind of have to have a go bag ready and hop on a flight. But it’s exciting.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Matt Haack signs with Buffalo Bills after punter Sam Martin injury