Who kicks and who returns?

General manager Brandon Beane released Deonte Harty and Siran Neal as part of the moves needed to get under the salary cap, but in doing so he created two big questions that remain unanswered heading into training camp.

Who will replace Harty as the primary punt returner? Who will replace Neal as the kicker? Those aren’t the only questions special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley has to answer.

The Bills also have a competition at kicker, with veteran Sam Martin looking to contain young undrafted free agent Jack Browning. Smiley also has to find a replacement for Tyler Matakevich, who was the special teams captain last season.

Wide open aptly describes this competition heading into camp.

“But you always hope to have competition at every position,” Smiley said. “We have some exciting players who are going to be battling to see who gets the job.”

The possibility of a Harty-for-Hardy trade has existed since the Bills selected Penn State cornerback Daequan Hardy in the sixth round of the NFL draft in April. Last season, Hardy returned 17 punts for 248 yards and two touchdowns for the Nittany Lions.

“I thought he was aggressive, tough, did a great job tracking the ball and he had speed,” Smiley said of watching Hardy’s college game tape. “As I got to know him more, I didn’t realize it, but at Penn State, they usually put an offensive player at the punt returner position and he really convinced the coaches to say, ‘Hey, let me get back out there.’ He was productive. I love working with him.”

As a sixth-round pick, Hardy may need to win the punt return job to make the 53-man roster. At least one national analyst thinks he will. Last month, NFL.com’s Chad Reuter named Hardy to his preseason all-rookie team as a return specialist.

If Hardy doesn’t make the roster, the Bills’ other options will likely include receivers Khalil Shakir and Andy Isabella. Shakir is expected to be one of the team’s top three receivers and, as such, will play many more snaps on offense than he did in his first two professional seasons. Because of that, Smiley and head coach Sean McDermott may decide they don’t want to use him as a returner. Shakir has eight punt returns and six kick returns with the Bills in two seasons.

“It’s different every year,” Smiley said of such a wide-open competition. “You could go back through the years I’ve been here and the players that have made returns and when Andre Roberts was coming back from Pro Bowl years (heading into 2020-21), he was our guy as a double-return player. But every year you try to figure it out.”

In addition to Shakir, running back Ty Johnson is expected to be in competition for the job. Johnson returned eight kicks for 161 yards last season, both team records. Smiley, however, made it clear that kick returner, like punt returner, is also very open.

“A bunch of guys,” he said when asked who would compete during training camp. “This year, with the new rule, the kick return is a little bit more like a punt return with the body type. These guys are potentially faster dual-skill players than they would have been in the past with the old rule.”

That could open the door for Hardy to handle both jobs.

Isabella had nine career kick returns in his five NFL seasons.

Martin had a down year in 2023, ranking 29th in net punt average with 39.8 yards. That number is a bit misleading, however, as Martin placed 24 of his 51 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. His 47.1 percent of punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line ranks fourth in the NFL.

Still, the Bills have shown a determination to add competition this year, even keeping three punters on their active roster for a time — a rarity in the NFL.

Matt Haack was released before the end of spring practice, meaning the competition came down to Martin and Browning, who played at San Diego State. Browning left the Aztecs as the program’s all-time leader in punting average, with 45.8 yards. He was a second-team All-Mountain West selection and was a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, which is given to the nation’s top punter.

In addition to his 343 special teams snaps, which accounted for 80 percent of the team’s total last season, the Bills also lost the leadership that comes with being a team captain when they chose not to re-sign Matakevich.

The team does have a few returning players who could fill that role, though. Fullback Reggie Gilliam played a team-high 365 special teams snaps in 2023. Defensive back Cam Lewis and tight end Quintin Morris also played over 310 special teams snaps.