Only three unsigned first-round picks now remain. The Bills checked theirs off the list Friday, agreeing to terms with Maxwell Hairston on his four-year rookie deal.
Hairston’s agreement leaves only Travis Hunter, Jahdae Barron and Shemar Stewart without contracts from Round 1. Hunter is not expected to sign for a bit, while Stewart is embroiled in a strange stalemate with the Bengals over guarantee language.
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The Bills, who also signed fourth-round defensive tackle (and ex-Hairston Kentucky teammate) Deone Walker, have only one pick left to sign. Second-round DT T.J. Sanders remains out of contract, but the second round has served as a sticking point as guarantee value for that draft sector continues to climb. While Walker figures to see a depth role in 2025, Hairston will face pressure to become an immediate starter for a Super Bowl contender.
Projected to become a Bill at No. 30 in Ely Allen’s PFR mock, Hairston indeed ended up in Western New York. He is the Bills’ third Round 1 CB investment since 2017, following Tre’Davious White and Kaiir Elam. Hairston brings elite speed to Buffalo’s secondary. The Kentucky product blazed to a 4.28-second 40-yard dash at the Combine — this year’s fastest clocking — to cement his status as a first-round-level talent. The Bills opted to leave Rasul Douglas in free agency and draft Hairston, adding a rookie-contract complementary piece following their Christian Benford extension.
A Kentucky-record three pick-sixes placed Hairston on the map in 2023, but he followed up the five-INT campaign with only one interception and five passes defensed in an abbreviated 2024. Though, that singular pick was also returned for a score. Hairston’s ball skills draw the most attention, but he works with a keen awareness of how the defense around him is unfolding. A shoulder injury caused him to miss five games last season; the Bills will bet on the 5-foot-11 corner anyway, doing so with a track record of injuries and draft misfires taking place at the position during the Sean McDermott-Brandon Beane era.
White saw injuries blunt his All-Pro momentum, with his ACL and Achilles tears costing the Bills dearly in narrow playoff losses to the Chiefs — as Buffalo CB availability has become a defining component in this series — and eventually leading him out of town as a cap casualty. White, however, is back (on a one-year, $3MM deal). Elam represented one of the biggest first-round busts in Bills history; the team admitted a mistake on him by dealing the 2022 draftee to Dallas in a late-round pick-swap agreement. The Chiefs picked on Elam, thrust into Buffalo’s lineup because of another ill-timed Benford playoff injury, in their AFC championship game win.
The Bills’ latest postseason loss to their nemesis undoubtedly influenced the Hairston investment, and the AFC East powerhouse’s CB depth chart points to the speedy rookie setting up camp atop the depth chart alongside Benford and slot bastion Taron Johnson. The Bills will have Hairston signed through 2028 and will hold a fifth-year option on the contract for 2029.