The Buffalo Bills have needed to add dynamic athletes to their defense for some time. Especially in the defensive secondary, a reliance on drafting corners whose best fit was to play zone coverage led to repeated issues against elite teams, and those issues often cropped up at the most inopportune times — like during the playoffs.
While the team began to add different types of athletes over the final two years of former head coach Sean McDermott’s tenure, those players were still playing in his zone-heavy
system. Now, a new defensive coordinator in Jim Leonhard has the reins. Will his defense be an attacking, aggressive scheme as advertised? Does that mean more man coverage, more blitzing, or more of the same with a few tweaks here and there?
In today’s installment of our “91 players in 91 days” series, we discuss a rookie who has a chance to become a key piece in Leonhard’s new-look Buffalo defense.
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Name: Jalon Kilgore
Number: 29
Position: S
Height/Weight: 6’1”, 210 pounds
Age: 21 (22 on 1/27/2027)
Experience/Draft: R; selected by Buffalo in the fifth round (No. 167 overall) of the 2026 NFL Draft
College: South Carolina
Acquired: Fifth-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Kilgore enters the first year of his four-year rookie contract, which is worth $4,843,324 overall. For the 2026 season, his cap hit is $1,000,831 if he makes the 53-man roster; Buffalo will carry a dead-cap charge of $463,324 if he’s released.
2025 Recap: Kilgore followed up his phenomenal sophomore campaign with yet another strong season as a junior. Playing in 11 games, he totaled 54 tackles, which was good for fourth on the team. Kilgore missed one game due to a hamstring injury. He tied for the team lead in interceptions with two, and he led the team in pass breakups with 10.
Before the season began, he was one of five players voted a permanent team captain by his teammates, and after the season, he earned plenty of accolades as a result of his stellar play. He was named to multiple All-SEC teams, including Phil Steele (Third Team), the SEC Coaches (Second Team), and PFSN (First Team). He was also voted co-Defensive MVP.
He was invited to the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, and he put on a show. Kilgore is an elite athlete, and he didn’t disappoint at the combine. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds and the 20-yard shuttle in 4.32 seconds, bench pressed 225 pounds a total of 16 times, and leapt 37” in the vertical jump, and 10’10” in the broad jump. According the the Relative Athletic Score (RAS) metric, Kilgore is the fifth-highest scorer at strong safety since 1987, scoring a 9.97 RAS out of 10.
Positional outlook: Kilgore is one of six players listed at safety on the current roster. C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cole Bishop, Damar Hamlin, Geno Stone, and Wande Owens are the others. Sam Franklin is listed as a defensive back, and while he is technically a safety, his real position is on special teams. Jordan Hancock is also listed at defensive back, and he might play slot corner or safety.
2026 Offseason: Kilgore is healthy and he participated in offseason workouts.
2026 Season outlook: Of all the selections Buffalo made on defense in April’s draft, it’s Kilgore that excites me the most. He is exactly what the Bills need in the back third of the defense, as they’ve needed to infuse the defensive secondary with more athletic players for quite some time. It’s something that the team recognized and began doing last offseason, but they’ve moved towards faster players in general on defense over the last 12 months.
Part of me doesn’t understand why Kilgore fell all the way to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. He’s a three-year starter in the SEC who has performed quite well, starting 33 games in his NCAA career. There are some questions about his positional fit in the NFL, as he played more of a big nickel or “Star” defender for the Gamecocks, and that role could limit him as a pro.
Does he have the agility and the fluidity to stay with receivers over the middle? Does the have the ability to backpedal and react to deep threats as a deep-third safety? Those are certainly questions to be answered; however, based on his overall athletic profile and his success in college, my thought is that he’ll be able to perform at various levels of the defense.
Todd McShay at The Ringer compared him to Derwin James, with the caveat that Kilgore doesn’t have the same high-end game tape that made James a first-round pick. They note him as a low-floor, high-ceiling pick, writing that he’ll likely begin his career as a rotational defensive back and special teams contributor before eventually developing into a starter. That’s probably the ideal pathway here in Buffalo, as Gardner-Johnson and Bishop will start at safety for the Bills when they’re healthy.
Will Kilgore do enough to push for time as the third safety? Is he competing with someone like Hancock for snaps on defense as a big nickel/dime back hybrid? Time will tell, but Leonhard should have fun using a big chess piece like Kilgore on defense this season. Not only do I think he makes the roster, but I think that, by the end of the year, he’s making a case for being the best rookie defender on the club.
