Buffalo Bills could have both rookie cornerbacks play in Week 1
The Buffalo Bills released their first depth chart over the weekend and first round draft pick Kaiir Elam was listed as the starter opposite Dane Jackson. Elam had been competing with sixth round draft pick Christian Benford during training camp and would have appeared to have won the starting job based on the depth chart.
However, when defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier met with reporters on Monday, he seemed to indicate this will be more of a rotation than necessarily having Elam be the full-time starter on Thursday night during the game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Frazier said they are still going through the process at the position and went on to say about the two rookies:
"“They both had good training camps for us and you know we’ll mix it up in the ball game and see how things are going as the game goes on.”"
Buffalo Bills taking an interesting approach to the position but not uncommon
It is interesting to hear that the Buffalo Bills don’t appear to have a clear answer between Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford. However, the idea of rotating cornerbacks during the course of the game is not something unheard of for the Buffalo Bills.
In 2019, the Buffalo Bills were seemingly splitting the second cornerback role between Levi Wallace and Kevin Johnson towards the end of the year. Then in 2020, it was Wallace splitting the snaps with Josh Norman, and both players over the final four weeks were each playing about 50% of the game.
While it would have been great for one of the two cornerbacks to emerge as the clear starter, this is something the coaching staff has experience doing. More importantly, doing so with success.
On Thursday night, it will be worth watching how the rookies do against Matthew Stafford and the Rams but also what the snap count breakdown is between Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford.
