Oh mercy, Percy’s back!

Published on Tuesday, 11/1/16, at 2:42 p.m. Eastern.

Percy Harvin is coming out of retirement to join the Buffalo Bills.

I’ve often wondered in recent weeks and months how on earth one of the greatest football talents to ever to step on a field was really retired at the age of 28.

Harvin struggled with migraine headaches throughout his college years at the University of Florida. His most recent issue was a hip injury limited him to five games with the Bills last year.

With a slew of injuries gutting its depth so deep that it is down to three healthy WRs, Buffalo made the move to bring Harvin out of retirement.

“We always keep every option open and it was one of those things with his familiarity with our offense that we decided to see where he is,” Buffalo GM Doug Whaley told BuffaloBills.com. “After that step credit to (Bills Senor VP of Football Administration) Jim Overdorf who talked to his agent. His agent reached out to Percy and here we are now.”

Bils head coach Rex Ryan added, “Percy is a guy that worked so hard. It’s either full speed (or nothing), and sometimes you try to back him down a little bit, but that’s why last year he was so frustrated that he wasn’t able to contribute more to our team. He just needed some time away from the game to get healed up. So hopefully we catch lightning in a bottle so to speak and Percy is back to himself.”

WRs Sammy Watkins and Greg Salas are on injured reserve. Robert Woods is dealing with a foot injury and Brandon Tate sustained a concussion in a loss to the Patriots on Sunday at Orchard Park. A roster spot for Havin opened up when Aaron Williams was placed on IR.

When Harvin is right, he’s one of the most dangerous players in the league. In 73 career regular-season games over eight seasons with four teams, Harvin has 351 receptions for 4,020 yards and 22 touchdowns. Harvin has rushed for 916 yards and five TDs on 145 attempts for a 6.3 yards-per-carry average. He also has five kickoff returns for TDs.

During Seattle’s blowout win over Denver in the 2014 Super Bowl, Harvin had an 87-yard kickoff return for a TD.

When Harvin was at the University of Florida for three years from 2006-2008, he and Tim Tebow led the Gators to a pair of national titles. Harvin rushed for 1,852 yards and 19 TDs with a 9.5 YPC average at UF. He also had 133 catches for 1,929 yards and 13 TDs.

Harvin’s 3,781 yards from scrimmage ranks 25th in SEC history. That’s 11 yards behind Fred Taylor and it ranks ahead of legendary names like Garrison Hearst (Georgia), Neal Anderson (Florida), Arian Foster (Tennessee), Joe Cribbs (Auburn), Amari Cooper (Alabama), Marcus Lattimore (South Carolina) and Knowshon Moreno (Georgia).

The Bills will face one of Harvin’s former teams on Monday Night Football when they travel to Seattle.