Trusted Bills CB earns spot on NFL ‘All-Underrated Team’ ahead of 2024 season

Bleacher Report has named Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford to its "All-Underrated Team" ahead of the 2024 NFL season.

Kyle Silagyi | Sep 3, 2024

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Bleacher Report is using the commencement of a new NFL season as an opportunity to shine a light on some of the league’s more overlooked players, with writer David Kenyon recently penning an article in which he constructed the NFL’s “All-Underrated” team ahead of the upcoming campaign. The Buffalo Bills have one representative on the squad, as third-year defender Christian Benford makes the team as its lone cornerback.

“As a rookie in 2022, he made 24 tackles while giving up 8.3 yards per target. Benford had an interception and five pass defenses, surrendering one touchdown,” Kenyon wrote. “Last year, he gathered 54 tackles, two picks, 10 PDs and two forced fumbles with 7.6 yards allowed per target and two scores. Not bad for a sixth-round pick!”

Benford, as Kenyon alludes to, was a sixth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, selected 162 picks after first-round choice Kaiir Elam, whom Buffalo initially viewed as its long-term starter at the position opposite Tre’Davious White. The late day-three pick out of Villanova quickly usurped Elam on the depth chart, starting for the team in its Week 1 matchup with the Los Angeles Rams; he showed flashes of being a tailormade Sean McDermott defensive back throughout his rookie year, a technically sound and reliable, if not generally unspectacular defender who could be trusted to execute his 1/11th.

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He built on these flashes in his sophomore campaign, starting 14 games and tallying 54 tackles, 10 pass deflections, two forced fumbles, and two interceptions. It was throughout the 2023 season that he evolved from a fun story into a potential defensive cornerstone; he particularly came on late in the season, showing signs of being a playmaker as he recorded four pass deflections and two interceptions over the final four games of the year.

The 23-year-old is simply a trusted presence who is refined in the minute technical areas of his game; these types of players don’t generally steal national headlines, but they’re crucial to team success. Buffalo demonstrably values and trusts Benford, to the point that he effectively fended off an ascending Elam throughout the summer despite the latter defender’s improved play. He’s a player that Buffalo’s brass will likely look to keep around for the long haul, yet the general league isn’t yet aware of his existence; this makes him an inspired and apt choice for Kenyon’s ‘All-Underrated’ team, but don’t be surprised if Benford sheds this label and earns his proverbial flowers this fall.

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