When former Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White tore his ACL in November of 2021, the Bills were going to be in the market to get themselves a replacement for him while he was working his way back form the injury. In the 2022 playoffs, the Bills and the Chiefs faced off against each other in what would be one of the highest scoring games in NFL history. Like always, the Chiefs came away with the victory against Buffalo.
White missed that thrilling playoff game and the secondary was weak, which allowed players like Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill to have fun out there.
The Bills would then go into the 2022 NFL Draft and look to get some cornerback help. The Bills originally had the 25th overall pick going into that draft, but once the Kansas City Chiefs jumped ahead of them in a trade to draft cornerback Trent McDuffie at No. 21 overall, the Bills needed to make a move.
Buffalo and the Baltimore Ravens would strike a deal that sent the Bills the 23rd overall pick and the Ravens acquired No. 25 overall and a 4th-round pick. The Bills ended up drafting cornerback from the University of Florida, Kaiir Elam.
Trading up for Kaiir Elam was the worst decision Bills could have done
When you invest a first-round pick on a player, the minimum expectation is that they will start every game, right? That has not happened with Elam whatsoever. In three season with the Bills, Elam has only started in 12 regular season games out of a possible 51 games in the regular season.
It was quite concerning that Elam, a first round pick for the Bills, couldn’t beat out teammate Christian Benford, who was drafted in the sixth-round the same year as Elam. He is a liability in man-to-man coverage and it showed once again against the Chiefs.
There were multiple penalties on him that led to scoring drives by the Chiefs and the fact the he couldn’t cover JuJu Smith-Schuster well is horrendous.
The Bills have until May 1st to pick up the fifth-year option of Elam’s contract and there is little chance that they do so. Heck, it might be impossible to do it because Elam has not lived up to his first round status. When you make a player a healthy scratch a majority of the last two seasons, it’s time to move on from him and open up a roster spot. It’s simple, Elam and the Bills just didn’t work out.