Bills' 'one last offseason move' should be at this position

Sean McDermott, throughout his seven years at the helm of the Buffalo Bills, has earned a reputation as a defensive backs savant, a position specialist who can ‘coach up’ marginal cornerbacks and safeties and elevate them into reliable starters.

Think back to the masterclass he constructed in the 2017 NFL season; the then-first-year head coach turned a secondary of Tre’Davious White, E.J. Gaines, Micah Hyde, and Jordan Poyer—then an amalgamation of youth, inexperience, and hope—into one of the league’s elite secondaries, a unit that would endure with White, Hyde, and Poyer as its pillars for the better part of the next decade.

Those pillars have departed, however, with the Bills moving on from all three defensive backs in the 2024 NFL offseason. It’s a changing of the guard in Buffalo’s defensive backfield, but it’s not one the Bills are unprepared for; the team has capable and proven players taking the reins, with McDermott serving as a reliable constant that could ensure production.

The recently signed Mike Edwards and returning Taylor Rapp are set to take over for Hyde and Poyer at safety, with second-round pick Cole Bishop expected to work himself into the mix. Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford—who finished the 2023 NFL season as the Bills’ starting cornerbacks—will return on the boundary, with premiere nickel defender Taron Johnson set to man the slot for the seventh consecutive year.

That said, Buffalo’s cornerback depth, particularly out wide, is admittedly a bit worrisome even given McDermott’s prowess. The Bills did not add a single boundary corner through free agency or the draft, with 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam set to serve as the team’s primary depth outside. A recent first-round draft pick as a depth option sounds admirable, in theory, but Elam has struggled throughout much of his professional career; Benford, who is now firmly entrenched above him on the depth chart, was selected 162 picks behind Elam in the 2022 draft.

Behind Elam on the depth chart are Ja’Marcus Ingram, Kyron Brown, and undrafted free agent Keni-H Lovely; though it’s fair to have confidence in McDermott’s coaching ability, one can be forgiven for not having blind faith in this cornerback room. That’s why Pro Football Focus writer Gordon McGuinness has identified cornerback as a position of need for Buffalo; in a recent article for PFF, McGuinness wrote that adding a veteran boundary option is the “one last offseason move" the Bills should make.

“Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas are both good starters, earning PFF coverage grades of 83.3 and 75.0, respectively, in 2023, but the Bills are light at outside cornerback after releasing Tre’Davious White earlier this offseason and losing Dane Jackson in free agency,” McGuinness wrote. “2022 first-round draft pick Kaiir Elam hasn’t lived up to expectations yet, totaling just 780 snaps in his two-year career. Adding a veteran on the outside would make a lot of sense for Buffalo.”

This analysis is remarkably fair; Benford has flashed throughout his two professional seasons and Douglas shined after being acquired from the Green Bay Packers at last year’s trade deadline, but it’s reasonable not to trust Buffalo’s supporting depth.

Elam’s aggressiveness has resulted in untimely penalties and a lack of trust from the team’s coaching staff; combine this with his struggles in coverage, and you have a still promising, but generally unreliable depth option. Ja’Marcus Ingram has been picked on in live-game action, while the 27-year-old Kyron Brown hasn’t taken a defensive snap in the NFL since 2019. Undrafted Western Michigan corner Keni-H Lovely is a ball-hawking speedster with an interesting developmental profile, but he likely shouldn’t see snaps this season.

Suring up the position by adding a reliable depth option seems like an advantageous opportunity for Buffalo despite McDermott’s ability to ‘coach up’ the position. Currently unsigned options that make some semblance of sense for the team include veterans Stephon Gilmore, Steven Nelson, and Josh Norman (only half joking).