A sweltering August afternoon seemed like an ideal time for Fontel Mines, Virginia Tech’s wide receivers coach, to give his starters a break and his underclassmen an opportunity to face the Hokies’ defense in training camp.
Dorian Strong disagreed.
Buffalo Bills Rookie Minicamp (copy)
The Bills drafted cornerback Dorian Strong in the sixth round. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
As soon as Strong noticed the substitutions, the talented 6-foot-1 cornerback playfully chirped to Mines that he wanted to face Virginia Tech’s best.
“Man, he is an elite competitor every single day,” Mines recalled in a phone interview with The Buffalo News. “That dude competes. Iron sharpens iron, and that says a lot about him and his character and him as a football player.”
Inside the draft room: How the Buffalo Bills assembled their nine-player class
A look at the process undertaken by the Bills for this year's NFL draft.
Strong showed the same mentality in each of his 53 games across five seasons at Virginia Tech. He relished the challenge of playing press coverage against the other team’s top receiver. His insatiable appetite for learning helped him develop into a tactician, and he excelled in man or zone coverage. Coaches didn’t need to use a safety to help Strong cover the wide side of the field. A lack of elite speed, at least through predraft testing, caused him to slide in the NFL draft, but he landed with the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round.
People are also reading…
The versatility, physicality, instincts and technical skills Strong showed in a high-pressure position in the ACC should give him a chance to compete for rotational snaps in Sean McDermott’s defense. The Bills’ projected starters are Christian Benford and first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston, but Strong shouldn’t be overlooked in the competition during training camp.
In 2023, Strong led FBS corners in completion percentage allowed (27.3), receptions allowed (nine) and yards allowed per coverage snap (6.24), and he was second in passer rating allowed (11.8), according to Pro Football Focus. His final season at Virginia Tech wasn’t as exceptional, but he proved throughout his path to the NFL that he’ll work relentlessly and compete against anyone to try to become the best.
“I’m very, very, very, very, very competitive,” the charismatic prospect said following the Bills’ first practice of rookie minicamp at One Bills Drive. “That’s just who I am. I played five years at Tech, so I’ve played a lot of football. I understand, and I’ve seen a lot. I’m very confident in who I am and my God-given ability. I know what I do off the field to make myself a better player. Smart, good IQ, very coachable. I love to compete all the time.”
The journey to CB
A framed photograph at the home of Strong’s family caught DaLawn Parrish’s eye at the party to celebrate his selection to the Bills.
Parrish, formerly the coach at Dr. Henry Wise High School in Upper Marlboro, Md., reminded Strong of the memorable touchdown catch shown in the image and how far he’s come.
You've met Max Hairston, the Bills' No. 1 draft pick. Catch up on the rest of their draft class here
Max Hairston took the first-round spotlight. Here's a look at the rest of the Bills' picks
Strong had been focusing solely on football for only a few months when the picture was taken. Previously, he ran indoor and outdoor track. Competitive running taught him how to accelerate and stride out on the football field, but juggling sports prevented Strong from participating in 7-on-7 summer tournaments. He wasn’t in the weight room as often, either, and he didn’t rejoin the football team each year until their first camp practice, three weeks before the season opener.
Teammates used to tease Strong that he was too skinny. They did not realize that their words would serve as fuel when he decided to make the full-time move to football. Strong always had the toughness, Parrish said. Strong never showed fear or hesitation as a wide receiver. He’d catch a slant route and dart past a linebacker without bracing for impact. He couldn’t play cornerback, however, until he had more time to learn the defensive playbook and gain more strength to play press coverage.
“He was tougher than his size said,” Parrish recalled. “He had a thin frame in high school and normally those guys are ankle-biters, and Dorian – in our program, we stress physicality, getting to the football, being violent, and he embraced that as Day 1. My message to him at the draft party was, ‘You always had to prove to people how good you are. This is nothing new. It’s always been you versus the world, and now go do it.’ ”
FBS programs weren’t interested in Strong until he began to attend college camps in the summer before his senior year. Virginia Tech eventually offered Strong a scholarship, and he remained committed once dozens of others began to show interest. Strong appeared in 24 games, 15 starts, across his freshman and sophomore seasons with the Hokies, then suffered a season-ending hand injury just four games into 2022.
Some players may not have recovered from the setback. The Hokies had a first-year coach, Brent Pry, who brought in a new group of assistants, including cornerbacks coach Derek Jones. Strong’s talent, upside and maturity were evident before the injury, though, and the staff saw enough to decide that it must build around him for the following season.
Buffalo Bills Rookie Minicamp
Bills cornerback Dorian Strong, left, spent a bulk of his off season training at the same facility as cornerback Maxwell Hairston, Buffalo’s first-round draft pick. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
Strong was the only returning cornerback on the Hokies’ roster in 2023. He was always attentive in meetings but quiet and reserved. If Virginia Tech was going to execute Pry’s coverage scheme, the defense needed Strong to lead and mentor the younger players in his position group. He delivered an exceptional season that firmly put him on the radar of NFL teams.
While making 25 consecutive starts following the injury, Strong had 19 passes defensed and five interceptions. He allowed a 39.6% completion rate (36 for 91) when his receiver was targeted, according to PFF. On his 363 coverage snaps in 2023, Strong allowed just nine catches on 33 targets for 83 yards with one touchdown. In the same season – Keon Coleman’s last at Florida State – the Bills receiver had just three catches for 22 yards while shadowed by Strong, who, Jones said, gave up no touchdowns on deep passes or in man coverage over his last two years at Virginia Tech.
“They got themselves a steal,” Jones said of the Bills. “Everybody’s got to understand that this guy’s a little bit different when it comes to playing that position. He had one of the most amazing seasons of anybody I’ve ever coached.
“If you go back and look at what people we’ve played against have done against him, it just hasn’t been a lot of success, especially when you talk about throwing the ball downfield.”
The best defense
While pondering whether to enter the NFL draft last year, Strong identified two areas that he needed to improve to ensure that he’d be ready for the next level. He had to gain more strength and prove he could tackle in the open field.
Strong knew he had the capacity to get bigger and stronger. His father, Donovan, is a retired professional bodybuilder. And though Dorian has always been a willing tackler, he had to show scouts he could do it consistently.
Roundtable: Our Bills writers share which draft picks they liked – and which ones they didn't
With the NFL draft now complete, Buffalo News reporters Jay Skurski, Ryan O'Halloran and Katherine Fitzgerald share their favorite (and least favorite) picks made by the Buffalo Bills.
Returning for another season also gave Strong the chance to continue to improve his cover skills, like preparing scouting reports for the other team’s top receiver, eye discipline, hand placement, how to undercut routes and how to play receivers off splits instead of releases. And, for a fifth year in a row, Strong contributed on special teams. His competitiveness wouldn’t allow him watch from the sidelines as someone else covered a kickoff or play corner on a punt return. If a receiver can change a game with a return, then a cover corner can do the same in coverage.
The 2024 season wasn’t as impressive for Strong, at least according to PFF. The website had him with 27 receptions allowed on 58 targets for 408 yards and one touchdown. It wasn’t enough to cause his draft stock to plummet, but in the months leading into the draft, teams search for reasons not to select a player. Years of production can be devalued because of a combine workout or pro day.
Strong couldn’t compete in the Senior Bowl because of a pulled hamstring at practice early in the week. The workout regimen Strong followed to gain strength for the combine helped him lift 15 reps on the bench press, fourth-most among cornerbacks, but he didn’t look as fluid as usual in positional drills in Indianapolis.
His 4.5-second 40-yard dash was also bound to cause him to drop in the draft, especially during a year in which the class was well-stocked with talented defensive linemen and running backs.
Still, few cornerbacks in the draft had Strong’s experience and success at playing man coverage. He had 112 tackles, 83 solo, and seven interceptions with 35 passes defensed at Virginia Tech. Strong is aggressive while defending the run – sometimes too aggressive – and though teams questioned whether he had the speed to regain ground if out of position, he used a 76-inch wing span, technique and intelligence to do it against ACC competition.
“I think the combine it was a 4.5 flat, but he plays twice as fast as that,” said Bills undrafted free agent receiver Stephen Gosnell, a teammate of Strong’s at Virginia Tech. “Even if he gets out of position, he can recover, catch up and then bat it down. He’s a high, high IQ corner. I don’t know if that was on his scouting report, but he’s very smart and he’s very patient.”
As most Bills rookies walked off the practice field, Strong stayed behind with Hairston to work on their press-coverage technique. One would act as a receiver running a route, while the other jammed him at the line of scrimmage to gain inside leverage. Every detail mattered. They trained together for most of the offseason at Exos Sports Performance in Phoenix and now they’ll be competing against each other for snaps.
The Bills’ lack of depth behind Benford was exploited in the AFC championship game when Patrick Mahomes threw for 245 yards to lead the Chiefs to a 32-29 win. McDermott needed more reliable corners to cover different types of receivers to get his defense off the field on third down or force a turnover. There’s competition at the position, but Strong showed at Virginia Tech that he won’t back down from a challenge.
“It’s Dorian’s job to prove that he is the guy that I know he is and that he knows he is, and I would say he’s OK with that,” Jones said. “I know he’s eager to prove himself, but had Dorian gone in the first round or second round, he’s still that type of guy that would want prove himself because he’s a very competitive kid.”
0 Comments
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!