{"id":283351,"date":"2025-08-12T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T23:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/283351\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T23:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T23:15:20","slug":"ir-stint-in-play-for-bills-maxwell-hairston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/283351\/","title":{"rendered":"IR Stint In Play For Bills’ Maxwell Hairston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bills avoided the worst-case scenario with Maxwell Hairston<\/a>, but the first-round pick still looks unlikely to begin the season on time. How much of the season he misses now looks like the key question.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hairston suffered an LCL sprain early in training camp<\/a>. While this represented a significant break for the Bills after an ACL tear was initially feared, Sean McDermott said an IR stint to open the season is in play. Due to Hairston\u2019s recovery timeline, McDermott confirmed (via The Athletic\u2019s Joe Buscaglia<\/a>) the team will probably need to discuss the prospect of Maxwell opening the season on IR. On a positive note, McDermott said (via the Buffalo News\u2019 Lance Lysowski<\/a>) Hairston is off crutches.<\/p>\n

Buffalo would have two IR options with Hairston. The team could use one of its two summer IR-return slots, which are available to teams before roster-cutdown day, to save a roster spot as Hairston continues to rehab. The Bills could also carry Hairston on the 53-man roster past cutdown day and then shift him to IR. The second path would be unlikely, as it is expected Hairston will be back to contribute as a rookie. He thus makes sense for one of the team\u2019s August IR-return slots, which must be announced by 3pm CT August 26.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Bills used both their summer IR-return slots \u2014 which became available to teams beginning in 2024 \u2014 by stashing Matt Milano<\/a> and running back Darrynton Evans<\/a> on their injured list<\/a>. This covered two of Buffalo\u2019s eight injury activations. While Milano returned from IR late in the season, the Bills did not activate Evans and instead cut him.<\/p>\n

The team had aimed for Hairston to start opposite the recently extended Christian Benford<\/a>, letting Rasul Douglas<\/a> test free agency. While the two-year Buffalo starter remains available, the Bills have reunited with Tre\u2019Davious White<\/a>. The former All-Pro, whose career skidded off track due to ACL and Achilles tears, is moving toward a chance to start again<\/a>. This represents a risk due to White\u2019s recent form, but the Bills have been pleased with how the nine-year veteran has looked during camp.<\/p>\n

White is going into his age-30 season and struggled in four Rams starts, being traded (to the Ravens) in a seventh-round pick swap at the deadline. Baltimore used White as a backup in seven games. White started 82 games for the Bills from 2017-23. Buffalo also reunited with 28-game starter Dane Jackson<\/a> this offseason; Jackson spent 2023 with the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Hairston missing this much practice time will likely affect his development. The Bills will not be eligible to designate the Kentucky product to return to practice until after Week 4. It would make sense Hairston hitting IR would lead to a longer absence than the four-game minimum, as the team would seemingly want him to ramp up during practice. The Bills could avoid this scenario by keeping Hairston off IR, using a week-to-week strategy that would allow for earlier practice work in the event he is ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bills avoided the worst-case scenario with Maxwell Hairston, but the first-round pick still looks unlikely to begin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,1495,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-283351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-maxwell-hairston","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115018342375084114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}