Bills Defensive Backs for 2025

[Sojourner]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said:

Bishop can play either safety position.  Here is what Chris Simms said on draft day.

 

 

Dude got his sht yanked away from him one handed by a 165lb soaking wet WR… 1v1s against a TE scare me. 

[colin]

5 hours ago, SCBills said:

If this statement is true, there is zero reason to pay Benford.

 

As we stand, we have a recent 2nd Round pick at Safety, a highly paid slot corner and a CB1 who looks to command a 20M+ AAV contract. 
 

That’s 3/5th of the Secondary.  

 

I think benford is a great story and a really good player, but he just isn't like a Ramsey or that guy we got out of SC who went to the pats, he doesn't have their overall ability.  Being banged up two years in a row doesn't help me expectation of his future either, so ya I don't think we'd be right to give him 20 per.

 

MCDs ds have performed so absolutely terribly in the playoffs it might not matter much.  I think best case is we min max it and get one stud Cb this off season and just draft a bunch of high potential guys and hope a few work out on d

[Jimmy Harris 69]

Rasul Douglas looked slow this year, maybe he was hurt. If his corner speed is lacking, is he a guy who could move to safety? I think we have this talk every off season about some corner who isn’t cutting it. I’m just doing my part. 

[BillMafia716ix]

Rasul Douglas and Hamlin are outta there. Definitely look for that 1st round draft pick to be a corner. 

[Utah John]

12 hours ago, Yobogoya! said:

Gonna need to add at least one veteran at both CB and S and probably spend one draft pick at both spots as well. 
 

Secondary went from being a perennial strength to a complete crapshoot in a hurry over the last two years. 

Well, look at who left.  The Bills had more holes than a colander last offseason and did well to address most of them, but DBs were clearly the weak area going into the season and that's how it turned out.  

 

i think the best team of the Josh era we were ever going to have was the 13 second fiasco.  That team was loaded, and since then attrition due to age, some FA losses, some injuries all took their toll.  If Beane wasn't really good at his job, the weaknesses would have been critical.  Yet the Bills were the two seed once again, and really only missed a shot at the one seed due to the Chiefs getting a series of small miracles, imagine that.  

[LABILLBACKER]

12 hours ago, DapperCam said:

I’m not sure if anybody else has noticed, but our defensive backs other than Benford were pretty bad in 2024. I’m concerned that there aren’t really answers on the roster, draft or FA to plug the holes. I don’t fully believe in PFF grades, but gave them because they can give a rough idea where players rank relative to their peers.

 

Safeties:

Hamlin - Probably the definition of a replacement level player. He was in position usually, but really lacked athleticism. Free agent this summer. (PFF 107/170 safeties)

Rapp - Just had an okay season. Notably got injured when we needed him and injured his teammates. (PFF 117/170 safeties).

Bishop - Missed a lot of training camp and preseason. Looked rough out there in a few games. Couldn’t beat out Hamlin for a starting spot despite far superior athleticism. (PFF 150/170 safeties).

 

Slot Corner:

T. Johnson - Previously an All-Pro, but had a pretty mediocre season. Was getting burned a lot. I cut him some slack since Rapp broke his arm in the first game.  (PFF 82/223 corners)

C. Lewis - Replaced Johnson when he was hurt and was constantly picked on. Had a huge role in the first Ravens game beat down. (PFF 106/170 safeties)

 

Boundary Corner:

Benford - Probably the only DB that played well. Not a ball hawk, but solid in coverage. Got a little bit leakier at the end of the season (Rams game on). Historically he is injury-prone and just had back-to-back concussions. (PFF 5/223 corners)

Douglas - Had a straight up bad year. Not sure if Father Time caught up to him. Free agent this summer. (PFF 132/223 corners)

Elam - At this point a huge bust. Wasn’t even active most of the season. Might have lost us the KC game. (PFF 47/223 corners, note this is just regular season on a low snap count)

Ingram - Only has stats in about half the games. Had an insane game vs the Dolphins, but seems like a bubble roster player (PFF 134/223 corners)

 

Bills had a bottom-10 pass defense, which based on personnel here is probably overproducing based on the talent.

 

So what is the front office going to do? Ideally we need to add a good safety and good boundary corner, along with better depth in case of injuries. Hamlin and Douglas will walk this summer IMO.

Wow, I knew our safeties were bad but combined that's awful. Who knows if Benford even comes back from those 2 back to back concussions? Who knows wtf we have in Elam?  And with all this DB carnage, the #1 need is still DL.  As others have suggested,  maybe we should just sign a FA WR then use ALL draft picks on Defense. 

[Kelly to Allen]

They need to draft two CBS and a safety 

[charlesfoote]

The secondary is going to need some upgrades, especially with age and injuries catching up.

[Back2Buff]

9 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said:

Bishop can play either safety position.  Here is what Chris Simms said on draft day.

 

 

 

Ya, I ain't taking anything Chris Simms says as any type of assessment or evaluation.  Just watch him at Utah, he never was a FS.  He is not great in coverage.

[MrEpsYtown]

Go all in for Jevon Holland or Syracuse alum Andre Cisco. Either are a perfect fit. 

 

Holland has given us fits over the years. He tackles and is a former corner with great ball skills and is still just 25 years old. It also hurts the Dolphins to take him away. 

 

At corner, as a buy low, maybe they go after often injured Eric Stokes who they apparently loved pre-draft. I have always really liked Byron Murphy as a fit here, but I am not sure if they spend the money. I always thought Murphy would be a great safety convert as well. 

[dave mcbride]

18 hours ago, DapperCam said:

I’m not sure if anybody else has noticed, but our defensive backs other than Benford were pretty bad in 2024. I’m concerned that there aren’t really answers on the roster, draft or FA to plug the holes. I don’t fully believe in PFF grades, but gave them because they can give a rough idea where players rank relative to their peers.

 

Safeties:

Hamlin - Probably the definition of a replacement level player. He was in position usually, but really lacked athleticism. Free agent this summer. (PFF 107/170 safeties)

Rapp - Just had an okay season. Notably got injured when we needed him and injured his teammates. (PFF 117/170 safeties).

Bishop - Missed a lot of training camp and preseason. Looked rough out there in a few games. Couldn’t beat out Hamlin for a starting spot despite far superior athleticism. (PFF 150/170 safeties).

 

Slot Corner:

T. Johnson - Previously an All-Pro, but had a pretty mediocre season. Was getting burned a lot. I cut him some slack since Rapp broke his arm in the first game.  (PFF 82/223 corners)

C. Lewis - Replaced Johnson when he was hurt and was constantly picked on. Had a huge role in the first Ravens game beat down. (PFF 106/170 safeties)

 

Boundary Corner:

Benford - Probably the only DB that played well. Not a ball hawk, but solid in coverage. Got a little bit leakier at the end of the season (Rams game on). Historically he is injury-prone and just had back-to-back concussions. (PFF 5/223 corners)

Douglas - Had a straight up bad year. Not sure if Father Time caught up to him. Free agent this summer. (PFF 132/223 corners)

Elam - At this point a huge bust. Wasn’t even active most of the season. Might have lost us the KC game. (PFF 47/223 corners, note this is just regular season on a low snap count)

Ingram - Only has stats in about half the games. Had an insane game vs the Dolphins, but seems like a bubble roster player (PFF 134/223 corners)

 

Bills had a bottom-10 pass defense, which based on personnel here is probably overproducing based on the talent.

 

So what is the front office going to do? Ideally we need to add a good safety and good boundary corner, along with better depth in case of injuries. Hamlin and Douglas will walk this summer IMO.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6097505/2025/01/29/bills-chiefs-offseason-roster-free-agents/
 

Good comments here:

 

“If there was one thing that became abundantly obvious, it’s just how much, through coaching, the Chiefs exploited some of the deficiencies of the Bills’ roster and some flawed planning to deal with them. These wound up being many of the tiny edges the Chiefs used to help fuel yet another trip to the Super Bowl. And while it leaves the Bills at home one game shy of their goal, it can help direct them over the next few months of roster building. Four positions felt it more than the others.

 

Cornerback

 

One central inflection point came when the Bills lost top cornerback Christian Benford for the game due to his second concussion in as many weeks. It subbed out one of the best defenders on the roster the entire season in Benford for the lowest-graded player on the whole roster, Kaiir Elam. Until Benford’s injury, the Bills had played zone coverage on 71.4 percent of the seven Chiefs dropbacks — a standard rate for their usual operating procedure.

It was a downgrade in performance and forced the Bills to pivot, likely trying to accomplish two things to give their defense a fighting chance. First, given Elam’s struggles in their usual zone-based defense, they tried to accentuate his strengths. He’s put together a handful of solid reps in a smaller sample size as a man-cover corner over three years and seems far more comfortable in those roles. Second, the Chiefs burned through the Bills’ zone coverage when Benford was in the game. They averaged 13.6 yards per dropback on five plays, including two scrambles by Patrick Mahomes. That’s opposed to allowing 4.5 yards per dropback in man coverage. So, the Bills and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich made a big switch through the rest of the game, hoping for the same results as the Ravens game.

 

But here’s the rub: the Bills ran man coverage only twice with Benford in the game, and Benford was the only reason they forced the incompletion on receiver Hollywood Brown to bring that per-dropback average down. Despite that, after Benford left the game, the Bills used man coverage on 50 percent of the Chiefs’ remaining dropbacks — a massive uptick from their 22.4 percent rate from the regular season. And the Chiefs were ready for it after seeing it on film from the previous game, armed with better, speedier receivers than the Ravens, and the Bills were down two members of their starting secondary.

 

After Elam entered the game, the Chiefs took off against man coverage. They targeted Elam repeatedly, and his confidence waned. When the Chiefs ran some pick plays targeting Elam, he got lost in traffic. There was a second-and-9 play where Xavier Worthy was lined up in front of Elam in man coverage, and Elam gave Worthy nearly 10 yards of cushion pre-snap. Mahomes quickly spotted it, Worthy ran a comeback to the sticks and had an easy completion. There was even a play later in the game when Elam was in press-man against JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Elam got himself crossed up, stumbled for the next two seconds and fell in coverage, allowing Smith-Schuster to be wide open over the middle of the field. That was on the Worthy catch that brought the Chiefs within the Bills’ five-yard line, and Elam went unnoticed because of the controversy around that catch and the defensive holding call on safety Damar Hamlin. On top of that, the team’s other starting cornerback, Rasul Douglas, a better zone defender than when he plays man coverage, struggled against the Chiefs receivers.

How bad was it? After Benford left the game, the Chiefs completed 11 of their 12 pass attempts against man coverage for 160 yards and Mahomes’ lone touchdown pass. Five of those 11 completed passes went for 15 or more yards. Three of them went for 20 or more yards. They averaged 13.3 yards per dropback. The Chiefs preyed on them in man coverage, using their speed and separation at wide receiver to their advantage and ran pick plays to enhance it further. Ironically, the other half of the time, the Bills were in zone coverage — what they had done all season, and the Bills allowed only 3.6 yards per dropback after Benford left the game. All five of Mahomes’ scrambles came against zone coverage, so that might have been part of their decision-making to keep on going with man coverage despite the results. But right from the moment Elam entered the game, man coverage was an overwhelming liability.

All of this is important because Douglas is a free agent and turns 31 in August. He’s no guarantee to be back next year. Elam has one year remaining on his rookie contract, but nothing about his showings throughout the 2024 season should make the Bills feel comfortable that he can step into a full-time starting role in 2025. Finding a cornerback to pair with Benford for the long term should be a focal point because everything over the last three years has shown Elam isn’t that player.

 

Safety

 

Without top starter Taylor Rapp available for the game due to an injury, the top starting duo was Hamlin and rookie Cole Bishop. Bishop had some reps he’d want back and wasn’t a plus-player Sunday, but by far, he was the safety who trusted what he saw and was consistently in a better position to make plays and chip in with run support. He nearly came away with an interception because of how he read the play, too. One of the most significant pressure points of the defense that the Chiefs pressed was with Hamlin.

 

As the season progressed, Hamlin improved from where he began early in the year. But the Chiefs game yielded one of Hamlin’s worst showings of the season. The hesitance he played with early in the year returned, which helped expose some of his athletic flaws. And then, with the Bills playing as much man coverage as they did after Benford left the game, Hamlin was pressed into one-on-one coverage. That led to several opportunities with separation and even a defensive holding call against him. Lacking the versatility to vary up coverages in a successful manner is a difficult thing to overcome, which questions his place on the Bills roster moving forward.

Hamlin is a free agent as of March, while Rapp is signed for 2025, and Bishop is signed through 2027. Unless it was on a team-friendly deal with the understanding that Hamlin is the backup behind Rapp and Bishop, they might be better off allowing Hamlin to sign elsewhere and address the depth at safety in a different way.”

 

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Bishop will be a Bernard type of player in terms of his light bulb going on. He's got elite athleticism, dude just needs reps. 

Elam.....my boy I've defended you for too long. Trade him for a 6th and call it good. 

[TFBillsfan]

Hindsight is always 2020, but it looks like Cooper Dejean should have been the pick over Coleman!

[T master]

I wondered why they didn't give Edwards more of a a chance at the beginning of the season i know he was hurt but although i'm not positive of it i feel he would have been a upgrade over Hamlin even though Damar knew the D because he had played in it for a few years but he was still a weakness on the back end .

 

I know the reason why Edwards wanted out because he wanted to start so i get that but if they wanted the best 11 on the field he should have had a much better chance at it . Does anyone know where he went and how he did this season ? I didn't pay attention after he got released .

[somnus00]

4 hours ago, MrEpsYtown said:

Go all in for Jevon Holland or Syracuse alum Andre Cisco. Either are a perfect fit. 

 

Holland has given us fits over the years. He tackles and is a former corner with great ball skills and is still just 25 years old. It also hurts the Dolphins to take him away. 

 

At corner, as a buy low, maybe they go after often injured Eric Stokes who they apparently loved pre-draft. I have always really liked Byron Murphy as a fit here, but I am not sure if they spend the money. I always thought Murphy would be a great safety convert as well. 

I didn't realize Holland was that young. He'd be a great addition.

 

Also, I really liked Stokes coming out of Georgia. I don't know if he'll make it, but you may be right about him being a cheap option with some upside. 

[MrEpsYtown]

2 hours ago, TFBillsfan said:

Hindsight is always 2020, but it looks like Cooper Dejean should have been the pick over Coleman!

 

For sure taking DeJean there was the move. He was a perfect fit. Again hindsight being what it is, trading down, grabbing DeJean and then trying to trade back up for Adonai Mitchell or Jalen McMillan would have been ideal. It is what it is. 

[Kelly to Allen]

I would like two high level cbs and another safety. 

[gordong]

21 hours ago, Roundybout said:

No one is trading for Elam after the tape he put out on Sunday. He’s not a rosterable player.

someone is always intrested in a former 1st round pick

[LabattBlue]

1 hour ago, gordong said:

someone is always intrested in a former 1st round pick

Not at his cap hit.  

[HamptonBillsfan]

On 1/29/2025 at 1:44 PM, DapperCam said:

I’m not sure if anybody else has noticed, but our defensive backs other than Benford were pretty bad in 2024. I’m concerned that there aren’t really answers on the roster, draft or FA to plug the holes. I don’t fully believe in PFF grades, but gave them because they can give a rough idea where players rank relative to their peers.

 

Safeties:

Hamlin - Probably the definition of a replacement level player. He was in position usually, but really lacked athleticism. Free agent this summer. (PFF 107/170 safeties)

Rapp - Just had an okay season. Notably got injured when we needed him and injured his teammates. (PFF 117/170 safeties).

Bishop - Missed a lot of training camp and preseason. Looked rough out there in a few games. Couldn’t beat out Hamlin for a starting spot despite far superior athleticism. (PFF 150/170 safeties).

 

Slot Corner:

T. Johnson - Previously an All-Pro, but had a pretty mediocre season. Was getting burned a lot. I cut him some slack since Rapp broke his arm in the first game.  (PFF 82/223 corners)

C. Lewis - Replaced Johnson when he was hurt and was constantly picked on. Had a huge role in the first Ravens game beat down. (PFF 106/170 safeties)

 

Boundary Corner:

Benford - Probably the only DB that played well. Not a ball hawk, but solid in coverage. Got a little bit leakier at the end of the season (Rams game on). Historically he is injury-prone and just had back-to-back concussions. (PFF 5/223 corners)

Douglas - Had a straight up bad year. Not sure if Father Time caught up to him. Free agent this summer. (PFF 132/223 corners)

Elam - At this point a huge bust. Wasn’t even active most of the season. Might have lost us the KC game. (PFF 47/223 corners, note this is just regular season on a low snap count)

Ingram - Only has stats in about half the games. Had an insane game vs the Dolphins, but seems like a bubble roster player (PFF 134/223 corners)

 

Bills had a bottom-10 pass defense, which based on personnel here is probably overproducing based on the talent.

 

So what is the front office going to do? Ideally we need to add a good safety and good boundary corner, along with better depth in case of injuries. Hamlin and Douglas will walk this summer IMO.

If Elam is back he’s just wasting a roster spot. Hamlin and Rapp are depth players and Bishop is still raw. We don’t need all three so Damar is odd man out. Douglas is a free agent and he’s history. The secondary hasn’t been good enough so it’s time to start again. A free agent corner and some quality high round defensive backs will probably do the trick.