The Buffalo Bills drafted two cornerbacks in the 2022 draft with the hope that at least one of them would pan out to become a lockdown player in the future.
It just turned out that the less likely one became that guy.
Amid the struggles of their first-round pick Kaiir Elam, sixth-round cornerback Christian Benford has turned into one of the best defensive players in the league … and is now part of the face of the Bills unit.
Benford signed a four-year, $69 million extension this offseason. While the value of the deal gives the Villanova product a significant pay increase from his rookie deal, it's still low when compared to other greats at his position.
And that's why ESPN analyst Aaron Schatz believes Benford remains one of the most underrated stars in the league.
"One of the tough parts of trying to identify an underrated cornerback is that the position's metrics are very inconsistent from season to season. But Benford is coming off two very strong seasons in a row, which doesn't seem like a fluke," Schatz wrote. "You might not have noticed Benford's 2024 impact because he had only two interceptions.
"But overall coverage success is based on a much larger sample of numbers than just INTs."
Elam this spring was traded to the Dallas Cowboys. So that experience is over.
Left behind?
The more Benford plays, the more obvious it has become that the Bills know how to target late-round defenders. … And how lucky the organization is to get a top player in the secondary during the 2022 draft.