This is the eighth in a 10-part series of questions facing the Buffalo Bills as they head into training camp at St. John Fisher University.
In a league where star wide receivers and tight ends of every shape and size have become so impactful, finding ways to cover them is every bit as important as rushing the passer.
Teams are forever trying to upgrade their pass rush because they continue to believe that’s the best way to curtail passing games, and we saw with the Buffalo Bills this past offseason with the drafting of T.J. Parker and the free agent signing of Bradley Chubb.
“You have to affect the quarterback,” defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said. “You have to try to change the comfort level of that quarterback.”
Of course that’s true, but
in today’s NFL, with so much reliance on the quick passing game, pressuring and/or sacking the quarterback has become a difficult endeavor.
There were 24 quarterbacks last season who dropped back at least 400 times and 19 got rid of the ball in an average of three seconds or less, the fastest being Detroit’s Jared Goff at 2.57 followed by Pittsburgh’s Aaron Rodgers (2.58) and former Dolphin Tua Tagovailoa (2.59). Josh Allen was 20th at 3.03.
Not surprisingly, 11 of the top 12 quarterbacks with the lowest pressure-to-sack rate were guys who unloaded in under three seconds, so if you’re not getting home quick enough, you need a strong group of defensive backs who can either prevent those quick throws altogether, or at least limit their effectiveness.
Bills secondary depth is dominated by young players
One of the key questions confronting Leonhard is whether the Bills are well enough equipped to accomplish that with one of the best corners in the NFL, Christian Benford, new nickel corner Dee Alford (64 NFL games), and a kiddie corps that includes 2025 first-round pick Max Hairston, 2025 fifth-round pick Jordan Hancock, 2026 second-round pick Davison Igbinosun, 2026 fifth-round pick Jalon Kilgore, and 2026 seventh-rounder Toriano Pride Jr.
One move that seemed obvious for president of football operations Brandon Beane to make during the offseason was signing a veteran boundary corner to provide depth. Last year, that move was Tre’Davious White and it turned out to be critical because Hairston missed half the season due to injuries and White started all 18 games he dressed for counting the postseason.
White has not been asked back and remains an unsigned free agent, so perhaps the Bills could look at him later in the summer, particularly if they suffer injuries at the position. Maybe it would be some other NFL veteran currently on the market, or someone who gets cut late in the preseason, but if not, the Bills are young and inexperienced at a vital position.
Jim Leonhard sees upside in Max Hairston and Davison Igbinosun
After Beane traded up into the second round to choose Igbinosun, he admitted, “As we started this draft, I thought that the biggest hole on our roster was corner. Corner is a premium position, you can't have enough of those guys. Right now with Tre'Davious being a free agent, with Dorian (Strong's) uncertainty at this point (due to his neck surgery which has already ruled him out in 2026), this adds another guy. So this is a depth player that will come in and compete. He'll push our starters in time and we'll take it one day at a time.”
Igbinosun will get every opportunity to battle Hairston head-to-head for the right to start, but regardless of who wins, you can expect that player to get a ton of targets. Leonhard knows this, but as the start of camp looms, he’s excited about what Hairston and Igbinosun can do.
“Obviously, from the speed and athleticism standpoint, (Hairston) was the top of the class,” said Leonhard, who studied his tape from Kentucky while serving as passing game coordinator for the Broncos the previous two years. “And then you add in the ball skills – the ability to take the ball away. He flashed that last year.
“You saw some big-play potential, and I felt like he was a guy that you have to create some vision for in your defense, however you get to that, right. When he’s staring at the quarterback, good things seemed to happen in college. I think Buffalo did a great job schematically with him last year, and we’re just going to continue to grow.”
While Hairston didn’t get a ton of playing time as a rookie (348 total snaps, 196 in coverage), Leonhard said that experience will serve him well as the competition begins, but he’s not willing to hand him a starting job because he also likes the potential of Igbinosun.
“I firmly believe you have to be able to rush the passer and you have to be able to cover, and we needed more depth in the room in order to do that,” Leonhard said of Buffalo using its first two draft picks on edge rusher T.J. Parker and Igbinosun.
“IGB is a guy that we saw as an ascending player that gave us a little something different, right? The size, the length that he has is a little bit different than what we had in the room, and we just felt like that was the right person to get in the room with that pick. It had nothing to do with Max or CB or bringing Dee in, like we needed more depth. You need more starters in a secondary; you can never have enough guys who can cover.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills are betting on youth at a critical defensive position
