'Most athletically gifted' Bills rookie ready to make an instant impact in 2025

The Buffalo Bills went to work in the NFL Draft as they added a multitude of defensive talent to build for the future.

Buffalo made nine picks in Green Bay, with six of them on defense, including their first five picks.

One of the highlighted selections for the Bills was their first-round pick, Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who has shown potential to be an every-down defensive back.

Maxwell Hairston, Kentucky Wildcats | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

Hairston's speed has caught the attention of many draft experts as being one of the top value picks of the draft. With the depth of the Bills' cornerbacks, he's expected to be an impactful player in Year 1.

CBS Sports writer Chris Trapasso wrote an article on the top 10 rookies who will immediately impact their teams. Hairston was ranked fifth on the list as Trapasso gave him massive praise as potentially one of the most athletic players in Bills head coach Sean McDermott's tenure.

"Hairston is instant impact for two main reasons: He's an routine playmaker with spectacular suddenness, and Sean McDermott has a long history of extracting the most productivity possible out of his defensive backs. And Hairston is, quite easily, the most athletically gifted corner McDermott has ever coached in Buffalo."

"The Bills now have a 4.28 speedster on the boundary who had six interceptions and 10 pass breakups in 20 games the past two seasons at Kentucky. And Buffalo had a seismic hole at CB2 opposite the newly minted Christian Benford in their secondary. Hairston is setup to have a tremendous first season in Western New York on a defense that finished second with 32 takeaways a season ago with lesser talent at corner."

Before blowing teams away with his 40 time, Hairston was a second-team All-SEC selection in 2023 for the Wildcats as he finished tied for sixth in the country with five interceptions. A shoulder injury cost him five games last season, but he still finished with four pass deflections, two forced fumbles, one sack, and one interception returned for a touchdown.

Hairston caught the attention of scouts at the NFL Combine, where he ran a 4.28 40-yard dash, the fastest time among all participants. He also had a 1.5 10-yard split with Next Gen stats, which gave him a 78 on his total score. That was ranked sixth among cornerbacks at the combine.

Benford and Hairston are expected to be the two starting cornerbacks, with Taron Johnson lining up as the nickel cornerback. McDermott has his secondary solidified with their two young cornerbacks for the next four to five years. Now it's about seeing if Hairston can live up to the expectations,

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