What Do We Do With Kaiir Elam? – Buffalo Bulletin

Instead, he sat in the backseat as veteran Dane Jackson took the top spot entering the season. That would have been fine, but Kaiir Elam himself was also sitting out of the CB2 spot. The man ahead of him on the depth chart? Fellow rookie and 6th-round selection Christian Benford. It sat poorly with fans, but Benford played well and grew to be a fan-favourite.

Man vs. Zone

A large part of why Elam wasn’t the starter was due to scheme fit issues. Elam was always a man coverage corner, and the Bills defense is heavy on zone coverage. We don’t play press coverage at the line of scrimmage that much, where Elam excelled in college, nor do players get left with one-on-one coverage in man. As a result, Elam had a lot of work to do to adjust his game to our scheme. He showed flashes last year, and was arguably one of the best players we had out there in the postseason, but nothing consistent.

Development isn’t linear, and he’ll continue to work on his game throughout his career, but Buffalo may not have time to waste. Cutdown day is on Tuesday, August 29th, and the rosters have already begun to shrink. As we assemble the final roster, where does Elam fit?

The Situation We’re In

Right now, Kaiir Elam appears to have settled like sediment at the bottom of the CB room once again. Based on what we’ve seen in training camp and preseason, he’s the fourth cornerback, with Tre White as the obvious starter and Dane Jackson battling with Christian Benford for the other half of the field.

The Buffalo Bills are left with doubts about the on-field value their sophomore first-rounder can give them. If he’s corner #4, will he ever get playing time? We have holes on this team that need fixing, and with every week that Elam sits on the bench, he loses value.

Now let us be clear. Elam is not a liability on the roster, nor does his contract necessitate a separation. As a result, cutting him simply isn’t a course of action worth looking into. This leaves us with two actual, reasonable options to explore, so let’s get into them.

Option #1: Keep Him on the Bench

This is the reasonable, easy, and perfectly understandable choice. Kaiir Elam may not be elite, or even a starter, but he offers speed unmatched by any corner we have on the roster, and will absolutely get some reps throughout the year. His development can happen as a backup and with only one season under his belt it would be foolish to assume he’s a bust.

But, if the Buffalo Bills choose to be brave, they might like our other choice.

Option #2: Trade Kaiir Elam

Option #2 is drastic, but if he isn’t on the field and we can get something that holds greater value to us than a backup cornerback, it’s something we should dive into. Kaiir Elam has trade value. He’s not worth the first-round pick he was drafted with, but Buffalo isn’t going to be looking for that anyway. If they’re moving on from Elam, it’ll be to address our current issues.

Buffalo needs help at middle linebacker and offensive tackle. A combination of injuries and an overwhelming lack of talent pushed them into a corner, and no-one on the roster seems to know the way out. Elam may not generate significant value, but he’s a cost-controlled asset with three seasons (and a fifth-year option) left under contract and elite traits in the right defense. To the right team, Buffalo could find another reasonable depth piece by sacrificing some of the already-proven depth we have at cornerback.

My Choice: I’m of the mind that Elam needs time, and we don’t have to create a future need for ourselves in order to address the problems the Buffalo Bills have right now. We don’t know definitively that Tre’Davious White will return to pre-injury form, and that uncertainty makes me uncomfortable. I’d rather keep a player we know can perform, even if there’s still work to be done.

Buffalo already has it’s issues, and it doesn’t need another one for 2024.