Bills' Brandon Beane should be all over Nigerian freak athlete shocking NFL scouts

The Buffalo Bills are familiar with the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program, having drafted United Kingdom offensive tackle Travis Clayton in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Clayton has stuck around the Bills facility, spending last season on the practice squad and earning a futures contract this offseason.

But every team is looking for the next Jordan Mailata, the Australian rugby star who became the franchise left tackle of the Philadelphia Eagles. Mailata was a seventh-round pick himself back in 2018, and he didn’t see the field until 2020, but since then, he’s become one of the top-5 best left tackles in the NFL.

Time will tell if Clayton can be ready for action in the coming years. But the Bills don’t have to be done investing in international prospects. The 2026 class features a defensive lineman who should be on general manager Brandon Beane's Day 3 radar after showing off his impressive athletic profile.

Nigerian defensive lineman delivers eye-popping metrics Buffalo Bills' scouts can’t ignore

No one in the NFL Draft scouting community knows freaks better than The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. Every year, he puts out a list of the draft’s most absurd athletes. So, when Feldman takes to social media to tout a prospect as the "biggest freak athlete" in the class, everyone in the NFL is going to take notice.

“This is the biggest freak athlete in this year’s NFL draft. I’d never heard of him till two days ago. He’s from a small village in Nigeria,” Feldman posted on X Friday morning.

Uar Bernard (pronounced “ooh-are”) took the field at the NFL’s HBCU showcase this week and put on a whale of a performance. The 6-foot-4, 306-pound powerhouse defensive lineman ran a 4.66-second 40-yard dash, put up 31 reps on the bench press, and hit 39" on his vertical jump and 10'10" on his broad jump.

Bernard is 21 years old and reportedly carries just 6% body fat according to a coach at the HBCU showcase, via Feldman and The Athletic. His RAS score was a perfect 10.00. If that doesn't pique Beane's interest, then hopefully defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard can pound the table for him on Day 3.

Bernard visually looks more like a WWE superstar than a defensive tackle, with a physique that would make old Greek statues envious. In another life, he could have stepped in for fellow Nigerian star Oba Femi against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania this year and fit in just fine.

He’s built like a machine, but his explosive and twitchy movements have scouts across the NFL salivating. He’s listed as a defensive tackle, but with his athletic profile, it might be up to the team to draft him to find the perfect spot for him.

For Buffalo, that’s likely still on the defensive line, where they could afford to use a Day 3 pick, even if they picked a defensive lineman earlier in the draft. Still, with Bernard catching such attention, waiting until the seventh round to call his name could be risky.

Currently, the Bills hold the top pick of the sixth round and the fourth pick of the seventh round, so they have two great opportunities to select him if his stock doesn’t skyrocket to unprecedented heights for an international prospect.