Christian Benford is the Buffalo Bills best kept secret and it’s time for that to change

Christian Benford is the Buffalo Bills best kept secret and it’s time for that to change

it’s time to have a Christian Benford conversation who is he what has he done and what is the future outlook we’re breaking all of that down for you today on lock on [Music] bills you are locked on bills your daily Buffalo Bills podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what’s up bills Mafia Joe Marino author of go bills and Buffalo’s run also the co-host of the lockdown NFL scouting podcast and I’m your host of lockon bills want to thank you for making lockdown bills your first listen every day and a big welcome and shout out to our every dayers you know who you are those of you who never miss a single episode I appreciate y’all being here very very much I’d also like to invite you to subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts we’re part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply well folks welcome in I’ve been excited for this episode had it on the calendar for a while and it’s finally time to have that Christian Benford conversation one of the best young players on the Buffalo Bills and to me a secret a secret across the league not enough people know the gospel of Christian Benford so we’re going to talk about that here today we’ll dive into who he is what he’s done the analytics the film and the future outlook for Christian Benford I want to start by telling a little bit of a story and it takes us back to the 2022 season opener as you probably remember the bills played against the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in LA and one of the prominent storylines for that game was who’s going to start at corner for the bills travius white of course injured danne Jackson you figured was one of the starters but between KY elim the first round pick or Christian Benford the hot name coming out of preseason in Camp who was going to be that starter and I remember getting the opportunity to attend that game which was awesome and I went with my wife and Kyle Krabs who’s the host of lockon dolphins and my best friend so we’re in Los Angeles and I just mentioned to Kyle I was like hey dude don’t be surprised if Christian benford’s the starting cornerback opposite of danne Jackson and I remember Kyle looked at me like I had two heads likeit what are you talking about didn’t they draft KY El in the first round I was like yeah dude but just trust me on this that’s where the buzz is that’s where the hype is and so of course I’m watching warm-ups and I’m dialed in on which players are running with the first team second Team all that type of stuff and they rotated you saw Benford getting the first opportunities and then of course KY Elum sprinkled in and so I’m like all right I it’s probably going to be Benford so the bills wind up getting the balls first of course they have the nine place 75 yard touchdown drive to start the season and then here comes the bills kickoff team in KY elam’s on the kickoff team and I’m like oh my God Christian benford’s not on this kickoff team KY elam’s on this kickoff team Christian benford’s gonna start and then the defense comes out on the field and lo and behold Christian Benford is a week one NFL rookie starter and since then he’s proved a lot and my objective today is to truly uncover one of the Bill’s best young players so let’s do just that so Christian Benford 23 years old he turns 24 in September so this is his age 24 season was a 2022 sixth round pick number 185 overall out of Villanova and let me pause right there Brandon beans 2022 draft Hall is shaping out to be exceptional which is interesting for a number of reasons first of all that 2022 draft class overall pretty weak go back and study it go look at the names wasn’t a great class number two KY elim is shaping up to be Brandon Bean’s first first round Miss and he was the bills of course top pick in 2022 number three The Narrative out of that draft and that 202 22 season is that Brandon Bean is a below average drafter and the team isn’t getting enough out of guys on rookie contracts and then you fast forward one year literally one year in that 2022 draft for the bills produced James Cook Terrell Bernard K Shakir and Christian Benford I mean it’s shaping up to be one heck of a hall for Brandon Bean especially given the trajectory of those young players but back to Benford Benford is 6′ and a half 208 lb has 31 in arms nine and 3/4 inch hands athletically he has an Ras score a relative athleticism score of an 8.14 out of 10 which is very good ran a 45340 yard dash which is okay a 151 10 yard split which is outstanding so good quickness 35 in vertical jump that’s Solid 10′ 4 in broad jump that’s solid and then his agility scores are actually pretty low 4.34 short shuttle which is below average and a 710 three cone which is below average he was not invited to the NFL scouting combine but he had a really really good college career at Villanova which is at the FCS level he started for Villanova as a true freshman and was the conference Defensive Rookie of the Year at 49 tackles six pass breakups and five interceptions and then he was all conference his last two seasons Junior as a junior and as a senior again and as a senior he led the FCS in pass breakups with 18 so for his career at Villanova 36 games played 14 interceptions and 47 pass breakups he also had 17 interceptions in high school so a nice resume of ball uction and so far he’s come into this Bills team and we’ll really break that down more on the other side of the break but by all accounts Benford is a quiet guy not super flashy I mean the guy wears 47 all-time bad cornerback number you can’t be a good Corner in the NFL and wear a number in the 40s right like Christian benford’s got to get that tightened up and that’s of course tongue and cheek I’m a big uniform Aesthetics numbers guy I like to talk about that stuff but you know he’s just not a flashy dude but he quickly came in and earned the trust of this coaching staff back toback years he’s beaten out KY elim the first round pick and despite all of that he’s kind of flying under the radar you even saw like prominent football people mocking the bills a corner in the first round this year and it’s like do you guys not know about Christian Benford and so I want to tell you about this guy so what has Ben for done so far in the NFL we’re going to examine the analytics the film and his future outlook on the other side of it so be sure to stick with me today’s podcast is sponsored by better help sometimes we all need the opportunity to get something off our chest big or small certain things can really start to get to you and it’s important to let that out especially to someone who’s unbiased on your life therapy can be different for everyone most of us have bigger problems and what’s going on with our favorite sports team and it’s important to get those chest those things off your chest every once in a while it’s helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries therapy empowers you to be the best version of yourself it’s not just for people who have experienced major trauma so if you’re thinking of starting therapy give betterhelp a try it’s entirely online designed to be flexible and suited to your schedule just visit betterhelp.com lockon to get 10% off your first month that’s betterhelp hp.com locked on so what is Christian Benford done in the NFL so far I want to kind of dive into the data and his production and then we’ll get into my notes from studying his film so far in the NFL he’s played in 24 games with 19 starts across two seasons he’s uh accumulated three interceptions 15 pass breakups two Force fumbles a fumble recovery and four tackles for loss in 2023 which I I would consider that his breakout season in 16 starts including the playoffs Christian Benford allowed less than 20 yards receiving in nine of those 16 starts including less than 10 in five of them on average in 16 starts he conceded 28 receiving yards per game he allowed three or fewer receptions in 12 of those 16 starts I mean the guy just doesn’t give up much in coverage and you’d think teams are looking at Christian Benford the sixth rounder out of Villanova and thinking yeah let’s go pick on that guy they’re not and when they target him they’re not having much success also Christian Benford missed just one tackle last year A M tackle rate of 1.9% some other data here among cornerbacks with at least 800 snaps played in 2023 these are some of Christian benford’s ranks according to PFF Pro Football Focus and you could put whatever stock you want into their grades but I’m just going to share them with you he has an overall grade of an 83 that’s eighth best among Corners in the NFL with at least 800 snaps played in 2023 a run defense grade of 75.7 that’s 10th best a coverage grade of 83.3 that’s seventh best he had the fewest Miss tackles of Any Corner in the NFL that played at least 800 snaps last year he conceded just 453 yards in coverage that’s the eighth fewest among Corners that played at least 800 snaps last year he allowed only 128 yards after the catch with his which is fifth fewest among Corners in the NFL that played at least 800 snaps in 2023 he’s one of just 18 Corners in the NFL to allow two or less touchdown receptions in 2023 and I went back and watched both of them the first one was against Tampa Bay 246 left in the game the bills are up 24-10 the Bucks are going for it on a fourth and 10 from the bills 26 yd line Baker Mayfield hit Mike Evans on a corner route Benford was in great position the ball was underthrown Mike Evans comes back to the ball slows up his route very clearly pushes off Christian Benford and catches a touchdown pass so there’s the first one the second one came in week 18 against Miami uh it was in the low Red Zone like at maybe the four yd line maybe the three yard line so very very much the low Red Zone it to Tyreek Hill he ran a whip route and Tua put a very accurate ball uh that was placed away from the coverage and he caught the pass I mean darell Rivas in his prime was going to give up that touchdown reception so those are your two touchdown catches that he gave up last year so obviously the data the analytics tell a great story but I obviously like to study the stats by also studying the film and so the date is great but what does the film tell you about the caliber of player that Christian Benford is I got a lot to say here and I’ll also get into some of you know I’ll get into strengths and weaknesses that’s what we’re going to do right now so I’ve obviously watched every Christian Benford game that he’s played but of course I specifically sat down yesterday and watched three of his games from 2023 through the lens of Christian Benford I just watched him on every single play the three games that I chose to watch were week 18 against Miami week 12 against Philadelphia and week eight against Tampa Bay and the reason I picked those games is because I thought it was the best wide receiver matchups you get to see reps against Tyreek Hill against Miami Philadelphia has dvon Smith and AJ Brown oh by the way he didn’t allow a single catch in that game week eight get Tampa Bay Chris Godwin Mike Evans so that’s why I checked out those games and this is these are my my biggest takeaways the things that stood out to me the most when studying Christian Benford we’ll get into his strengths first number one strength is Zone coverage Christian Benford is excellent in zone coverage he understands coverage spacing and layering coverage right whenever you’re in zone coverage you’re spacing the field in a particular way and Benford has a very very strong feel for his landmarks for diagnosing route combinations staying leveraged and just he’s very comfortable kind of with his eyes in the back field understanding his depths and being in good spots he knows where his help is which is very important because that tells you how to leverage the routes effectively he knows where his help is he knows where he can maybe cheat a little bit how he can squeeze routes very effectively and he does a great job of adjusting on the Fly I think that’s maybe my favorite thing about him in zone coverage is like obviously there’s a coverage concept of where every supposed to everyone’s supposed to be and what everyone’s supposed to account for but once the ball snapped you have to have instincts and play with vision and play on the Fly and you know you could see you know sometimes playing Corner in the NFL is is about process of elimination you understand the eligible receivers you understand uh route Concepts and based on where guys align their splits how they get into the routes you can take things off the menu and then position yourself very quickly to be where you need to be that allows you to come off your coverage Landmark because sometimes you can see guys in zone coverage and all they do is cover grass and that’s that that’s not helping anybody Christian Benford doesn’t do that he’s very very good at adjusting on the Fly and what I to kind of expand a little bit on that covering grass idea that’s what I mean is sometimes guys in zone coverage they’re so focused on just getting to their Landmark that it doesn’t even make sense to get there anymore because of the route combinations you don’t see that from Christian Benford he knows how to adjust on the Fly based on very quickly what happens when the ball is snapped very good in zone coverage which makes him a great fit for what the bills do on defense I think Christian Benford has excellent ball skills very good timing in terms of invading the catch point and making a play on the ball he does a very good job of playing through through the hands of wide receivers and he’s one of the few guys that’s probably not fair he’s one of the guys that actually has good ball skills with his back to the football sometimes you see guys struggle to find the ball or struggle to play through the hands with good timing benford’s very very good at that and then this I mean the resume of ball production whether it’s so far in the NFL what he did at Villanova what he did in high school it’s I think the the the stats tell you he’s got good ball skills the film affirms that big time resume of ball production looking for that to continue Christian Medford is an outstanding tackler as I mentioned missed one tackle last year missed tackle rate of 1.9% that’s the best of Any Corner in the NFL what makes Christian Benford a strong tackler he understands angles and when you understand angles and you could leverage the football you’re going to put yourself in good positions to make tackles and then from there he has good form he’s under control he’s coordinated he has good contact balance he knows how to put himself in good positions to make a tackle and I’ve talked to NFL coaches in the past and I’ve heard this come up a few times where one thing that they say is guys either understand angles or they don’t very very rarely can somebody really pick that up Christian Benford understands how to calculate angles which makes him a very good tackler another thing that he’s really good at is punching out the ball he is um very deliberate about that he’s a good tackler but also is always bringing in that peanut punch as often as he can and I love that I think Corners that are good in coverage Corners that can tackle but also Corners that can take away the football and whether it’s playing the ball in the air or trying to create Force fumbles Christian Benford does that very very well I think Christian Benford has excellent skill as a run Defender you know I think in a zone defense your Corners got to play The Run and we just talked about his tackling ability and and of course that helps you as a run Defender but understanding his fit as that dgap Defender a lot of times taking on contact funneling runs back to his help not allowing guys to get outside of him and pushing the ball and funneling the ball back inside where his where his teammates are very good that and then I I mentioned earlier that his agility scores were not very good um for his athletic testing but where I think he overcomes that is economy of motion he’s a very efficient mover it’s very efficient movement patterns the way that he changes directions there’s no wasted steps the way that he flips his hips and transitions from the pedal to a Sprint very clean and so no he’s I don’t think he’s the most explosive changer of directions or explosive ability to flip his hips and turn and run but because he has no wasted steps and anticipates routes well that puts him in good position to very quickly change directions and flip his hips when necessary so the strengths are pretty clear to me Zone coverage ball skills tackling run defense and economy of motion there’s two major growth areas I find with Christian Benford number one is man coverage and first of all the bills asked him to play a very little man coverage they only played uh Christian bford in man coverage 21% of the time that’s 13th lowest among quarterbacks in the NFL in 2023 that had at least 500 coverage snaps so they don’t ask him to do it a lot which makes sense because I don’t think it’s the strength of his game I think Christian Benford is most comfortable when he gets to play with a little bit of cushion and can then kind of read the release read the back field and put himself in positions to leverage I think his ability to just pattern match is not a strength of his game because it kind of takes him out of that element and now he’s got to mirror and match steps with guys and I think in those situations I think you can kind of see some tightness show up uh lack of ability to really just quickly close down distances when he’s having to to mirror in match it’s different than Zone and he also has this mentality when he plays and I think it’s the right mentality that he’d rather give up a quick underneath completion rally and make a tackle instead of giving up plays down the field that’s that’s the right side of things to be on but because of that there’s always a little bit of cushion with his man cover reps so again only 21% of his coverage reps were man coverage the bills are probably have him in that 20 to 25% range which is probably where he should be but I don’t look at Christian Benford and think you know what he’s got above average skill in man coverage probably sufficient maybe a tick below average not a strength of his game the other big one and as bill bich has said repeatedly your best ability is availability and there have been availability issues with Christian Benford both of his Seasons so far in 2022 his rookie season fractured his hand and week three and he missed two games then he had a an oblique injury in week 11 and he missed the rest of the season including the playoff loss to the Bengals so as a rookie he missed seven games in 2023 had three different deals he missed week five against Jacksonville with a shoulder injury he missed week 10 against Denver with a hamstring and then he missed a playoff game against Kansas City with a knee injury so kind of looking at some of those games those were all losses Jacksonville Denver Kansas City then the playoff loss to the Bengals and of course the bills won a bunch of games without him down the stretch in 2022 but the reality is he’s missed three of four playoff games so far in his career and he got injured against Pittsburgh pretty early it was in the first quarter the first quarter of the Pittsburg game he’s he missed he was injured that’s when he got injured and didn’t finish the game so he’s essentially missed basically every play all four playoff games and he’s missed a total of 12 12 of a possible 37 games so far in his career that’s 32.4% of the possible games in his career he’s missed them and injury stuff is hard to to Really pin down right like I mean he’s had a bunch of different stuff a fractured hand and a bleak injury a shoulder injury a hamstring injury a knee injury all of it cost him to miss games I kind of remember like early early in his career Taran Johnson kind of had those types of deals it felt like all the time and then that’s really kind of changed a lot hopefully the same type of trajectory can happen here for Christian Benford but I mean if this guy’s GNA be a big part of this defense you need him to be healthy and available for you especially late in the season when you need him the most all right so on the other side of it I want to talk about the you know the the future outlook um I want to get into some player comparisons for him potential contract conversations and just what what the future holds for Christian Benford with the Buffalo Bills so be sure to stick with me folks the NFL schedule is here so many high-profile 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first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code locked on NFL that’s l cked o n NFL for $20 off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right let’s talk about the future outlook for Christian Benford and I want to start by considering some contract Dynamics so he’s entering his third season and that means that after this year we we could be talking about an extension I think that of course requires two things you’d like him to be healthy and you’d like for him to replicate and build upon an outstanding 2023 season I really don’t think there’s going to be any issues with that piece of it do want to see him I do want to see him stay healthy as for some player comparisons and I this was a good question I got it from a member of the locked on bills subtext Community which I encourage you to join there’s a link in today’s show notes and everyday show notes so if you want to be part of our subtext Community get one-on-one text messaging with me uh we send out my first reaction to all Bills news you get access to our Discord Channel where there’s hundreds of Bills fans in there talking you know bills sabes the NFL all kinds of cool stuff so check that out if you want to join the lock on Bill subex Community I’d love for you to be part of it but someone asked me hey can you I because I told him I was going to do the Christian Benford pod you you get a lot of get a lot of information as part of our subex community and he said look you I excited for this episode can you give us some player comparisons to help us really paint the picture for Christian Bedford I thought of three that I really liked the number one player comparison that I like is travarius Ward um really good cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers udfa out of Middle Tennessee State in 2018 by Kansas city became a good starter for Kansas City turned that into a pretty nice contract with the 49ers really good run Defender really good Zone coverage ball skills size and athletic profiles are similar that’s my favorite comparison for Christian Benford I think you can draw some parallels to James Bradberry who was drafted by Brandon mean and Shawn mcder back in 2016 for the Carolina Panthers and I think their skill sets are somewhat similar I think rul Douglas has a lot of similarities to Christian Benford so I think that’s the type of corner that I’m talking about when I get into Christian Benford and honestly I mean Benford benford’s probably more athletic than any of those three players and and that’s exciting but I I see pieces of all three of them in Christian Benford but travarius Ward the the shining player comparison in my mind so what would that mean for a contract I know that this might be getting ahead of ourselves a little bit but I like to speculate on this type of stuff you know if Christian Benford is healthy if he builds upon 2023 you know this is going to be a guy you’re gonna want to keep around this is you know potentially your number one corner for a long time he’s young he’s 24 years old uh done some really good things I feel like his best football probably still is ahead of him so looking at contracts TR very ward in 2022 the year that Christian menford was drafted signed a three-year $4.5 million deal with the 49ers and and oddly enough his contract is up after this season so I’m not sure if they’re gonna extend him now or later but I’m sure that’s a player the 49ers would like to have back but I will say this about the corner market in general it’s it’s been really strange you feel like it’s such an important premium position in the NFL but at the same time the acceleration of the corner market has not paced like other positions you’ve seen you’ve seen quarterbacks you’ve seen wide receivers you’ve seen Edge rushers you know those markets have jumped even guards these guys are getting paid the corner market is has really not done that yeah leria sne and Jaylen Johnson just got extended and those deals came in at1 19 million a season your topof the market Corners are 20 21 million I think Jer Alexander and denz Ward are in that range Carlton Davis when I look at a comparable contract situation Carlton Davis just signed uh for 14 and a half million per season in Detroit that kind of feels like the path we’re headed on with car with Christian Benford but when I look at the travarius war deal back in 2022 and I look at the Carlton Davis deal that just signed with Detroit I think the interesting part of that is Carlton Davis’s contract comes in at 5.6 8% of the salary cap on an average annual basis for Denzel Ward when that deal was signed or excuse me for javarius Ward when that deal was signed in San Francisco it was at 6.48% of the cap at the time right so this is kind of I’m just putting all this together to give us a clue as to what this deal could be uh Jaylen Johnson and leria sne those deals came in at seven and a half percent of the cap so if Benford comes in let’s call it 5.68% which is exactly what Carlton Davis came in at of the 2025 cap and when you look at the 2025 cap projections spot rck has it at 273.5 million overthecap.com has it at 260 million those are those are different numbers if you meet in the middle at 266.00 million and you assume that Christian Benford signs a deal that winds up being 5.68% of the cap per season at the time the deal signed that comes in a 15.1 one for aav I think you could be seeing a three-year $46 million deal something something like that if they want to go four years four years 60-ish million I think that’s I think that’s the range we’re talking if he does the thing I said healthy continues to perform like he has and maybe even builds upon it the last thing that I want to say about Christian Benford is this I felt like for two years we kind of speculated on him being a guy that transitions to safety that conversation’s over over this is the best Young quarterback on the team one of the better young quarterbacks in the NFL you’re not moving him to safety he’s a perfect scheme fit for the bills at corner and now you’ve made some Investments at safety post pyer and hide you just drafted Cole Bishop with a second round pick you just signed Taylor R to a three-year deal you’re not taking your best young corner and putting him at safety that that conversation needs to be dead I think it is but I wanted to make sure that it absolutely was because that’s not a conversation that we need to be having right now and and look he’s entering his age 24 season maybe in five or six years you look at it and say okay yeah all right let’s talk safety here and there’s probably a natural n a natural transition opportunity there down the line that’s that’s a very much a future conversation go ahead and kill that conversation Christian benford’s a corner which makes sense because his initials are CB get it cornerback all right that’s gonna do it for us here today on the podcast I hope that you enjoyed this deep dive into the Buffalo Bills best kept secret and hopefully that will change um of course this maybe this podcast will help but how he performs on the field and as you I think the rest of the World catches up with the type of player that he’s become all right folks that’s going to do it for us here today on the podcast as always I kindly ask that you share subscribe rate and review have a great rest of your day go bills and I look forward to catching up with you again real soon

Christian Benford is developing into one of the best young players on the Buffalo Bills roster but doesn’t get enough recognition. On today’s episode, Host Joe Marino breaks down Christian Benford and his future outlook with the Buffalo Bills. The show is focused on the Buffalo Bills, Christian Benford, Sean McDermott, Brandon Beane, Joe Brady, Josh Allen, Keon Coleman, Cole Bishop, Bobby Babich, Ed Oliver, Gable Stevenson, Javon Solomon, Greg Rousseau, Von Miller, Rasul Douglas, Damar Hamlin, Kaiir Elam, Chase Claypool, Curtis Samuel, Dion Dawkins, Tre’Davious White, Taron Johnson, John Butler and more!

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