Is Christian Benford a good fit to play more man coverage?

ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 07: Christian Benford #47 of the Buffalo Bills reacts as he leaves the field after the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Highmark Stadium on December 07, 2025 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images) | Getty Images Christian Benford and Maxwell Hairston are “penciled in” as the Buffalo Bills starting outside cornerbacks right now — not my words, but those from Brandon Beane in his post-draft press conference about a month ago. The “penciled in” comment came in response to a question about the team’s second-round selection of boundary corner Davison Igbinosun.

Given the extraordinary lack of depth at that specific position, we probably should have seen Buffalo drafting an outside corner reasonably early coming. But I want to circle back to the words from Beane that Benford and Hairston are onl y “penciled in” as the starters. Now, I have long loathed press-conference analysis but I’ll be a masochist here for a few sentences.

Maybe Beane slightly misspoke. Maybe he was subtly defending the club’s decision to address cornerback with its second pick in the 2026 draft. Maybe the team really doesn’t view Benford and Hairston as absolute, locked-in starters on the outside right now.

We know Hairston is a young, twitched-up, sub 4. 30 corner — his skill set screams man coverage. That leaves Benford, and raises the question; is he well-suited to play presumably more man coverage in Jim Leonhard’s new defensive scheme?