The Buffalo Bills have some question marks in the defensive secondary. While they have plenty of talented players, there’s a fear that both of their likely top corners are somewhat prone to injury. Perhaps it’s unfair to designate a player who’s only been in the NFL for a season as injury prone, but for Buffalo’s other top corner, he’s yet to play a full season in his four years in the league.
That penchant for injury has led to some unfortunate substitutions at inopportune times over the years—hello, Dane Jackson—and was also a reason why general manager Brandon Beane added a high draft pick to Buffalo’s stable of cornerbacks in April. You can never have too many corners, and while the Bills have some good ones, their availability on Sundays is never guaranteed.
In today’s installment of our “91 players in 91 days” series, we discuss Buffalo’s CB1, a player with immense talent who overcame a poor start last season to play lights-out football when it mattered most.
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Name: Christian Benford
Number: 47
Position: CB
Height/Weight: 6’1” 205 lbs.
Age: 25 (26 on 9/21/2026)
Experience/Draft: 5; selected by Buffalo in the sixth round (No. 185 overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft
College: Villanova
Acquired: Sixth-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Benford signed a four-year, $69 million contract prior to the start of last season. Of that total, the deal includes $$37.636 million in guarantees. For the 2026 season, Benford carries a cap hit of $7.396 million if he’s on the 53-man roster. Buffalo would carry a dead cap charge of $35.036 million if they were to release him.
2025 Recap: Benford’s 2025 season did not start well, as he was routinely beaten in Buffalo’s season-opening victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Pro Football Reference had him allowing six completions and two touchdowns on eight passes where he was the closest defender in coverage. In fact, throughout the season’s first five games, Benford was not good. He allowed opposing quarterbacks to go 19-for-27 (70.4%) for 177 yards and four touchdowns; he had neither an interception nor a pass breakup in those first five games. After that stretch, though, he locked in and played the way we all know he’s capable. He did not allow another touchdown in the regular season, finally breaking in the Wild Card Round against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Including the postseason, Benford allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete just 16-of-36 passes (44.4%) for 207 yards with one touchdown. Benford had two interceptions and six pass breakups over those final 11 games that he played. One of those interceptions came against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he also recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown on the first play of the second half of that contest, swinging the momentum in a game Buffalo ultimately won running away. The following week, he made Buffalo’s play of the year, making a leaping interception of Joe Burrow and returning it 63 yards for a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals. On the regular season, Benford played in 14 games, totaling 43 tackles, two interceptions, four pass breakups, two sacks, two fumble recoveries, and four tackles for loss. In the postseason, he totaled five tackles and two pass breaups in two games. He missed Buffalo’s November loss at the Miami Dolphins due to a groin injury, and he also missed the Bills’ December loss to the Philadelphia Eagles thanks to a toe injury. He sat the regular-season finale against the New York Jets, as well.
Positional outlook: Benford is one of nine players listed at cornerback on the current roster. Dee Alford, Maxwell Hairston, Davison Igbinosun, Toriano Pride Jr., D.J. Miller, Anthony Kendall, Jordan Dunbar, and Kani Walker are the others. Te’Cory Couch is listed at defensive back, but he plays corner. Jordan Hancock is also listed at defensive back, but he is a safety/cornerback hybrid.
2026 Offseason: Benford is fully healthy and embracing a role as a vocal leader now that he is the veteran in the room.
2026 Season outlook: Benford’s talent is not a question, as he has proven himself to be among the league’s best corners when he’s playing at his highest level. The question is whether Benford can line up every single week, as he has yet to do that in his pro career. Buffalo’s cornerback depth has been tested this summer, as Maxwell Hairston has dealt with an injury that has caused him to miss plenty of practice time. Kani Walker, who has been a pleasant surprise this summer, is also hurt, so Buffalo has added some players to eat preseason snaps in order to preserve others.
Benford has primarily played in a zone-heavy scheme throughout his career, as that’s what Buffalo ran under head coach Sean McDermott and it’s also what he did at Villanova. Coming out in the 2022 NFL Draft, Lance Zierlein wrote that Benford could play zone or man, but that he might need “scheme protection” in man coverage. With new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard looking to play more man and match coverage, can Benford continue to thrive?
I think the answer is yes. Even though the McDermott scheme was known to be zone-heavy, there were signs over the last two seasons that more man coverage was coming. The Bills continued to load up on plus-athletes, and they did play a heavier percentage of man coverage over the last two seasons than they did early in McDermott’s tenure. Even though they still played zone 70% of the time, Buffalo was thirteenth in man coverage rate, running it nearly 24% of the time. That percentage is likely to increase this season.
Benford has the ball skills and the physicality to match the league’s best wideouts regardless of scheme. Yes, he might need some help over the top against burners, but rare is the cornerback who doesn’t need that kind of assistance. As long as he can stay on the field, Benford is sure to help the new-look Bills defense charge into a new era this season.
