Buffalo Bills 2026 scouting report: cornerback Christian Benford

Buffalo’s CB1 is ready to embrace his role as the top dog in the defensive secondary

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. _____________________________________________________________________________ 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.