By Pat Welter

Nyheim Hines has agreed to terms on a year deal with the LA Chargers according to Hines agent. ESPN’s Adam Schefter the first to report the news. 

Hines hasn’t played since the 2022 season with the Buffalo Bills.  He’s been recovering from a knee injury he suffered in a jet ski accident July 2, 2023.  The Chargers selected UNC running back Omarion Hampton in the first round of the NFL draft.  Ironically a 4th of July eye injury suffered by Chargers running back Najee Harris opened a spot for Hines.  Harris is a free agent signing from the Pittsburgh Steelers.  He’s currently on the active/non football injury list.  The Chargers play the Lions in the Hall of Fame game to open the NFL preseason July 31st in Canton.  With the Hines addition, the Chargers have 7 running backs on the roster entering training camp. 

Below is a feature story on Hines road to recovery from an interview conducted on Friday July 18, 2025. 

ROAD TO RECOVERY

“This one is Ecclesiastes 4:9. It’s something for me, personally, I’ve always been very self sufficient, very independent. And it just says, Two is better than one,” Nyheim Hines said pointing to a tattoo on his wrist. “For you, I have good fortune. If two people are alone, they can warm themselves. If one is alone, how can they warm themselves? So honestly, I just look at it when I need to ask for help.”

Help is something Hines has needed a lot of the last two years. It’s a scorching July afternoon on a football field at Optimist Park in Weddington, North Carolina.

“2:45pm, probably 95 degrees,” Hines said as he prepared to practice returning a kick. “Who else is here right now? Nobody.”

The tattoos are his mantra, the scars are his reminder.

“ACL,” Hines said as he pointed to a long narrow scar on the front of his left knee. “LCL. They actually look kind of good though.”

They are a reminder of everything he’s lost and everything he’s working to get back.

“I’ve always been short, I’ve always been small, but I’ve always had the opportunity to go on the field and prove everybody wrong,” Hines said. “So I think the hardest thing this year was, just over the last two years, is hearing all these people talk about me, saying, I’m done.”

In 2023, the former NC State and Garner high school star was set to play for the Buffalo Bills. He was coming off a year where he lead the NFL with two kick returns for touchdowns.

Then July 2nd at Lake Norman happened.

“Honestly, I didn’t ride the jet skis the whole weekend,” Hines remembered. “My friend told me we needed gas. Went got gas. We were right around the corner. We just left the marina. We were right around the corner from the Airbnb house that we had that was docked. I stopped. My friend was riding directly behind me, hit me, going 25 miles an hour, jet ski flies over my head. It’s a whole scene. I’m thankful to be alive.”

In the collision Hines tore his ACL and LCL.

“I shouldn’t have been in that position, I shouldn’t have been on a jet ski,” Hines said. “It sucks that it happened like that, but everything happens for a reason.”

He’s spent the last two seasons recovering. At times the mental has been even harder than the physical.

“I lost [years] 26 and 27 and I guess 28 those are physically your best years,” Hines said. “It hurts on the mental side of it. I think that was the hardest thing is, I think I missed five games my entire life.”

Like the bible verse on his wrist reminds him, he needed help. He saw a therapist, still he felt embarassed and hurt.

“I can sit here and say I don’t see things on Twitter, but I do. I’m human, like, if they mention me, I might see it,” Hines said. “I might not see it, but it’s the fact that I’ve seen all these things, and I haven’t had a chance to go out there and use my work to defend myself.”

Hines spent last season on the non football injury list with the Cleveland Browns. He is currently a free agent. As hard as this has been, his mother’s health issues have always kept things in perspective.

“So the Friday of week one, when we played Dallas, I actually had a call from my sister,” Hines said. “My mom’s oxygen levels are dropping. She might have to go on life support.”

Hines’ mother, Nannette Miller, suffers from muscular dystrophy. Hines drove through the night to the hospital in North Carolina. He stayed with her for two weeks.  He had just left when he got a call to come back.  Aspiration in her lungs lead to pneumonia requiring a ventilator.

“I didn’t think Mom was gonna make it,” Hines said. “Not only did my mom wake up, she squeezed my hand at seven that night. I probably sat on my mom’s chest and cried that whole night.”

“She squeezed my hand, and then about 11 o’clock that next morning, she can actually communicate with me. We had, like a little alphabet chart she could point to what she wanted.”

Hines’ mother spent the entire football season in the hospital. Hines knows the moments they have left together are limited.

“I feel like my mom has bought time and fought hard to watch me play again and I would not fail on that,” Hines said. “I told her that last year. I didn’t know if she’d get off life support, I didn’t know if she’d ever see me play again.”

Hines rehab process has been round the clock. Right now he works out two to three times a day, six days a week. It begins at 5:00am with cryotherapy, he also uses tech boots. He’ll do on field workouts and lift.

“If you stay ready you don’t have to get ready,” Hines said.

He’s already had workouts with the Colts, Browns and Texans. He knows he’s close and with training camp set to begin, an opportunity is just a phone call away. He wants to play again for himself, but maybe most of all, for his mom.

“She can’t move her arms as well. She hasn’t walked in years, and she still wants to do things for her life,” Hines said. “So who am I to let one injury stop me when I haven’t had a real surgery like this before, and I’m excited to see what I can do, because my mom is still here. I can still talk to her, and she’s bought time for me to show what I can do and show the player I will be.”