Buffalo Rumblings
Now that the Buffalo Bills are off for the summer, it’s time for some rankings.
We won’t see Josh Allen and Co. for six more weeks until they all converge on St. John Fisher University in Pittsford at the end of the July.
And because the Bills have a new defense, a unit that features not only a new coordinator but plenty of new, young pieces — heck, Buffalo has spent 12 of its last 19 draft picks on that side of the ball — I felt it an appropriate time to rank the best Bills aged 25 or younger.
To qualify for this exercise, the Bills player simply needs to be 25 at the start of the upcoming 2026 season.
Hairston has the most upside of anyone on this list — along with a former collegiate teammate of his you will see below. We all know what he did at the combine in 2025, and when he recovered from his training camp injury a season ago, he hit the ground running with a stick on a screen play against the Panthers in Carolina then an interception of Patrick Mahomes on a deep ball to Xavier Worthy.
Hairston was built for the modern-day NFL that prioritizes lightning quickness and separation skills at receiver. He’s the definition of twitchy. He’s fast. He plays bigger than his size as a tackler. He can find the football in the air. All these traits were on full display during his last two seasons at Kentucky when had six interceptions and 10 pass breakups in his final 20 games.
I firmly believe Jim Leonhard’s system will work wonders for Hairston’s development. It will more regularly ask to simply go one-on-one with his assignment on the outside, and that’s where he can flourish.
At the ripe age of 23 (in August), Hairston has his best football in front of him.
Hawes is already 25 — he’ll turn 26 in December — and even though I’m typically not a fan of older draft prospects, the Yale-turned-Georgia Tech demonstrated what an older rookie can do in Year 1 in the NFL.
He asserted himself into the “best blocking tight end” conversation right away.
And it’s not as if Hawes was a lumbering, do-nothing receiving threat. As a rookie, Hawes averaged a hefty 1.89 yards per route run, albeit on a relatively small sample of just 146 routes.
I’m very much intrigued to see how Joe Brady incorporates Hawes into the offense in 2026 — does he absorb some of the fullback duties of the departed Reggie Gilliam? Or does Brady give him more opportunities in the pass game in multiple tight end sets?
We know Hawes is going to demolish in the run game, and given that he’s now a full year into an NFL strength and conditioning program, he can become a major asset when the Bills run the football.
I’ve been a Williams fan...
