The NFL trade deadline looms large, with November 4 just around the corner. In the past, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has leveraged the trade deadline to bolster the team’s in-season roster for a playoff push. Now more than ever, Beane may need to work the lines to address what’s clearly the team’s biggest defensive weakness — that being the defensive backfield.
Recall, One Bills Drive recognized the situation, bringing back fan-favorite cornerback Tre’Davious White. However, many had
reservations about White starting games in 2025.
Buffalo’s decision makers likely knew this too, and focused there early in the 2025 NFL Draft. First, the Bills selected cornerback Maxwell Hairston with the team’s top pick late in Round 1, then later adding cornerback Dorian Strong in Round 6.
With those three moves, a plan was in place heading into mandatory minicamp: Competition breeds greatness, where White and Hairston would compete for the starting LCB role, and Strong would backup Christian Benford at RCB. By all accounts, Hairston looked good early, and likely headed to a starting role on defense to begin the season.
Unfortunately for Hairston and the Bills, a knee has played a major role in his rookie season, robbing him of valuable preseason reps before he landed on in-season Injured Reserve (IR). Hairston is now eligible to return from IR, but Buffalo has yet to open his practice window.
That left the Bills to start White at LCB, with Dorian Strong now his immediate understudy. By Week 3 it was clear that White had lost more than a few steps needed to cover NFL receivers, which led the team to giving Strong 22% of reps at outside cornerback in Week 4 versus the New Orleans Saints.
Strong showed well, and the hope was that he could continue growing into a bigger role with the starting defense. That is, until he appeared on the team’s injury report ahead of the Week 5 game against the New England Patriots. Having suffered an unspecific neck injury, now Strong is on in-season IR.
On Monday, head coach Sean McDermott mentioned that Strong was headed “to see a specialist for his neck injury,” per ESPN Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg. McDermott added that nothing is ruled out yet, which includes the possibility of season-ending IR.
That leaves Buffalo’s defense with Tre’ White the unquestioned starter at LCB, with cornerback Ja’Marcus Ingram (once again) the immediate backup. It remains to be seen how comfortable the Bills standing pat with the current lineup, and that’s without even considering the potential for additional injury.
Buffalo does have options on the practice squad, where veteran cornerback Dane Jackson and an untested Daequan Hardy both wait for their opportunity. To be certain, teams value those players in-house above almost anyone outside the organization. That is, unless they look to bring a former player back with experience in the system, or see someone who excels in a similar mold. Two seasons ago, that was cornerback Rasul Douglas, who Beane brought in at the trade deadline. Douglas played exceptionally well to start, then less so in the 2024 season, void of elite speed to keep up with premiere receivers. Yet Douglas was a proficient tackler, and a tough player who brought more to the table than they had without him.
Douglas is now with the Miami Dolphins, having signed with them late in training camp. The Dolphins are struggling, and there’s no telling if or when general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel may be shown the door a final time. Could Beane work the trade lines once again to bring Douglas back to Buffalo?
There are other options, such as Asante Samuel Jr., who is still unsigned and dealing with a concerning neck injury of his own that he had spinal fusion surgery for this past April. The latest news on Samuel is that he’s set to have a CT scan this month (October) to ensure the surgery was successful, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. An enticing option when healthy, the 25-year-old free agent Samuel still may be a long-shot to join the Bills this season when factoring in the time needed to adjust to the playbook and his ramp-up to playing starter’s reps in 2025.
Samuel isn’t the only available NFL free-agent cornerback. The list is deep enough, but whether or not any of these players can come in and positively impact Buffalo’s defensive secondary is another question. Take a look, with a nod to Sharp Football Analysis for the list:
- Asante Samuel Jr.
- Stephon Gilmore
- Kendall Fuller
- Emmanuel Moseley
- Tony Brown
- Tre Herndon
- Troy Hill
- Cameron Sutton
- Michael Ojemudia
- Duke Shelley
- Cameron Dantzler
- Tyler Hall
- Bobby Price
- Daryl Worley
- Greg Stroman
- Ka’dar Hollman
- Caleb Farley
- Justin Hardee
- Kevin King
- Stantley Thomas-Oliver
- Kevon Seymour
- Dicaprio Bootle
- Andrew Booth
- Cam Smith
The Bills must do something, and different than just swapping players in off the practice squad. So much of this does depend on Hairston’s recovery, but even that situation can’t be digested in and of itself in a vacuum.
If Hairston isn’t activated this week, it means he won’t begin practicing until Week 8 at the earliest. Even if/when he is activated, what can the team expect from Hairston, whose only experience to this point has come in team practices? There’s reason to wonder if Hairston can compete against NFL receivers at this point, beyond the speed element.
There are other potential options to land a new starting cornerback, with murmurs that Trevon Diggs (Dallas Cowboys) and Riq Woolen (Seattle Seahawks) could be made available at the trade deadline on November 2. Perhaps further down the list as it relates to the Bills are options like Michael Carter II (New York Jets) and Joshua Williams (Kansas City Chiefs).
The Jets are the only winless team, but would first-year head coach Aaron Glenn and first-year general manager Darren Mougey welcome an in-season trade with a division rival? It’s possible if they see potential in someone on Buffalo’s roster. There’s a lot going wrong in New Jersey, so they could look to move on from anyone who isn’t a massive salary cap casualty.
Similarly with the Chiefs, would head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach be willing to send someone to help the Bills’ defense — a clear rival at the top of the NFL chain? Perhaps they find a need to add someone like wide receiver Curtis Samuel, but KC’s receiving corps is mostly unsettled due to injury, and Samuel carries a lot of injury baggage.
That’s why trading (again) for Rasul Douglas might make a lot of sense for Brandon Beane and the Bills in the next few weeks. Though McDermott has preached patience and managing expectations regarding Hairston’s return to practice and eventual debut, Buffalo doesn’t have the same luxury if problems persist in the secondary.
Among those discussed here, do any among trade options in Douglas, Diggs, Woolen, Carter, and Williams seem like a good and likely option? What about Samuel or others on the list of free-agent cornerbacks? Or are you instead willing to wait it out for Max Hairston’s debut — and what if that doesn’t come until the 2026 NFL season?
