ORCHARD PARK - The only reason Jordan Phillips left Buffalo for Arizona in 2020 free agency was the business of football.

There was no sense digging for a deeper meaning. The defensive tackle never wanted to leave, and he probably would have stayed for less money than the Cardinals gave him - which was a lot, by the way, a three-year deal that included $18.5 million guaranteed.

But at that time, with how the Bills were spending their money to build the team that eventually played for the AFC championship, general manager Brandon Beane just couldn’t get the finances to work in order to retain Phillips, even though he was coming off a breakout 9.5-sack 2019 season.

“I didn’t want to leave; I wish I didn’t,” he said Thursday after signing a one-year contract to return to the place that he said just feels like home. “It was sad because everyone thought I was leaving for the money.

“Me and Brandon talked and it just seemed like the better opportunity was for me to leave at the time and it served its purpose, but my end goal was always to come back here and I’m happy it worked out. A lot of smiley faces, everybody’s giddy, I’m real giddy. I haven’t slept yet. And I have so much energy right now that it’s a great feeling.”

Phillips is one of five free agent defensive linemen who have signed with the Bills in the span of four days, along with Von Miller, Tim Settle, Shaq Lawson and DaQuan Jones. The difference for him and Lawson is that they knew exactly what they were coming back to when they walked through the door at One Bills Drive.

“Once you leave somewhere and you realize that’s really what you want, you just gotta do what you can to come back,” Phillips said. “It’s just the family aspect here that really draws me to this. You’re playing for more than money here and that’s just nice. Everybody has each other’s backs, people’s kids grow up together, it’s just a nice atmosphere to be around.”

That’s why when the Cardinals released Phillips Wednesday, there was no need for a free agent tour. Buffalo was the only place he wanted to be.

“You have the best quarterback in the league, you have one of the best receivers in the league, we just signed the best pass rusher in the league, Ed’s playing really well, you’re gonna get Tre’Davious back, you have two of the best safeties in the league, one of the best linebackers in the league. Why wouldn’t you come back?” he said.

Phillips may have been a Cardinal the past two years, but he readily admitted he never stopped following the Bills as they won back-to-back AFC East titles. In fact, he was in the stands at Arrowhead Stadium in late January cheering for the Bills in their epic AFC divisional round loss to the Chiefs.

“I didn’t miss a game,” he said, meaning keeping tabs on how the Bills were doing in his absence. “I mean, you can ask me anything about a game (from the past two years) and I could probably tell you. I talked to the guys constantly, stayed in touch. When I left, this was real close-knit group, first time that I felt part of a football team that’s like more of a family. I’d go see the guys in the offseason, we still hung out.”

The only time he wasn’t rooting for the Bills was the now famous Hail Murray game in 2020 when his Cardinals beat Buffalo on the last-second Kyler Murray to Deandre Hopkins Hail Mary touchdown pass. Then again, was he privately still rooting for the Bills?

“No,” he said with a smile, “but I wasn’t playing, so … It was a fun game, exciting.”

Tim Settle’s reaction to Von Miller signing: Wow

The 24-year-old Settle agreed to his new contract with the Bills on Monday and traveled to Buffalo Wednesday to sign the deal. En route, he heard that his new team had taken the colossal swing of signing Miller and the first thing he said was, “Wow.”

That was in line with what Phillips’ reaction was: “Holy (crap)!”

Settle already knew Buffalo was the place he wanted to be, an opinion that was formed partially after having played against the Bills at Highmark Stadium in 2019 and 2021 and remembering what it felt like as the Bills drilled his Washington team 24-9 and 43-21 in those games.

He said Bills fans certainly made an impression.

“Dang, these fans,” he said. “We left, and every fan - fans was coming out of their houses waving. Everybody made sure, they let us know that y’all lost. The fans, just love them here. It’s football. It’s all the fans know is football. You can feel the intensity, especially during the game, what fans can do.”

Atmosphere aside, this was already a defense and a team that Settle wanted to be a part of, but the Miller signing put everything over the top for him.

“Shoot, I called my dad; forget calling anybody else,” he said with a smile. “‘Did you see who we got?’ I was excited, he was excited. This tells you what this team wants to do, bring in guys that can change the game, you bring in guys that dynamic, you bring in guys, future Hall of Famers, to be a part of something great.

“I said they want to win, that’s what it is, the winning culture. Von wouldn’t have come (if that wasn’t the case). But he wants to win. Everywhere he’s been, he’s won. It’s a winning culture here, that’s what we want to be a part of. From the bottom to the top, they want to win and everybody’s bought in.”

Settle said that he was in contact with his old Virginia Tech teammate, Tremaine Edmunds, throughout the process of picking Buffalo as his next destination.

“I definitely talked to Tremaine, we already have a connection,” he said. “I talked to him before, during and after. I know how he plays, he knows how I play, so everything should feel perfectly fine, perfectly normal. It’s definitely gonna feel good to be able to play with Tremaine again.”

O.J. Howard goes from Tom Brady to Josh Allen

The tight end spent the past two seasons playing with the greatest quarterback in the history of the game, but he said he’s pretty excited about moving on to play for the Bills quarterback who is now on a superstar trajectory.

“I think it sounds good to me,” Howard said. “I could be a guy that can say I played with both of those guys when it’s all said and done. I’ve seen Josh from afar and I’ve seen him in person when he came to Tampa (last season), so he’s a great player and I’m just so excited about the whole situation. It’s just a great spot to come in with a quarterback like Josh and seeing all the talent around him.”

Howard was a former first-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2017, but injuries have really held him back throughout his career. He has been able to play only 59 of a possible 81 regular-season games and caught only 117 passes for 1,737 yards and 15 TDs.

Of course, he also lost playing time when the Bucs brought in Rob Gronkowski two years ago, so moving to Buffalo, he hopes, can resurrect his career.

“For me, not getting much playing time was starting to get in my head like ‘hey, let’s just keep getting better, chances are going to come in the offseason, you’re going to get a new start to flip the chapter,’” he said. “I came in with so many goals and expectations and didn't really get a chance to accomplish anything that I wanted. But that's part of it, you have to fail and learn from it. I'm glad that happened at a young part of my career.”

McDermott thinks with a fresh chance, the athletic 6-foot-6, 251-pound Howard could really emerge.

“Obviously was a highly touted guy coming out (of Alabama) a few years ago and he was high on our radar then, and obviously again, when the chance came up here to circle back and try and get him again,” McDermott said.

“Big, tall body that can get down the seam and box people out. I know to this point, maybe he hasn’t been able to do what people thought he would do coming out. So again, I think just getting him under our roof and getting him to a spot where he’s having fun playing football again and becoming the best version of himself.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills free agency updates: Jordan Phillips happy to be back