It was a massive blow for the both the team and player, because the Broncos feasted on the Bills\u2019 depleted secondary in their divisional playoff win.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in the playoffs, it was tough,\u201d Hairston told The Buffalo News after a spring practice. \u201cJust got to keep that flame inside of me, take that into next season, and when we make that run, I’m available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Missing significant time early in the season and then not being available when the games mattered most tested Hairston as much mentally as it did physically.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, just praying on it, always having faith, and always believing that everything happens for a reason,\u201d he said of getting through such a frustrating season. \u201cJust controlling what I can control, physically and mentally. Not letting an injury slow me down from being a good teammate. Always still encourage the guys. It’s hard regardless, but it’s not impossible to get through. You’ve just got to put your head down and work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message Hairston heard from his veteran teammates in the secondary \u2013 Benford, White and safety Jordan Poyer, in particular \u2013 was to play free when he got on the field. That gave him the confidence to execute at a high level almost immediately. That showed up on tape, and has impacted how the Bills\u2019 new coaching staff views Hairston going into the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love Max. I was a huge fan of Max coming out of college as well,\u201d defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said. \u201cWe\u2019re not down on any of the corners that we had. We needed depth. I firmly believe you have to be able to rush the passer, you have to be able to cover, and we needed more depth in the room in order to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true the Bills have had a depth problem at cornerback for years. That has hurt the team in multiple playoff losses. That helps explain Beane\u2019s reasoning. The team views Igbinosun as an ascending talent who adds a press-man element to the defense with his size and speed. The Bills also signed nickel cornerback Dee Alford in free agency. They will make up the team\u2019s top four cornerbacks, along with Benford and Hairston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a massive blow for the both the team and player, because the Broncos feasted on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[265,5445,5443,215,13682,4256,214,53,2086,9227,2184,7,104228,90259,3921,1495,122,6,47357,1890,47358,3026,632],"class_list":["post-934574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buffalo-bills","tag-american-football","tag-american-football-league","tag-american-football-league-teams","tag-bills","tag-bobby-babich","tag-brandon-beane","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-buffalobills","tag-christian-benford","tag-davison-igbinosun","tag-football","tag-jay-valai","tag-jim-leonhard","tag-jordan-poyer","tag-maxwell-hairston","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nfl-teams-seasons","tag-sean-mcdermott","tag-seasons-in-american-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116849981788888030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934574","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=934574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}