The Buffalo Bills have one of the most underrated players in the game roaming their secondary. And it looks like he may finally be getting the credit he deserves.
Cody Alexander — Head of Football Operations for sports analytics company Field Vision Sports — shared his top five NFL cornerbacks from the 2024 season on X this week. Of course, the likes of All-Pros Pat Surtain II, Derek Stingley Jr., and Marlon Humphrey were within the group.
But his No. 1 CB? None other than the Bills’ CB1, Christian Benford.
According to Field Vision’s havoc rating system, Benford ranked highest in the league among CBs with a 95.0 rating. He also posted a 90.2 zone coverage grade and allowed 18.6 receiving yards per game.
”He is a pure zone CB who can play man,” said Alexander in his X post “Still, Benford is a perfect fit in the Bills system on a down-for-down basis.“
One may be wondering, “what’s the havoc rating?” Here’s how it’s described on Field Vision’s site:
“Field Vision's Havoc Ratings were built by creating a model that calculate individual player impact on a play-by-play basis,” says Field Vision's website. “Accounting for virtually every outcome a player is responsible for that creates (or degrades) value for their team.
”Field Vision's Havoc Rating is an expression of a players value (i.e. How good they are) relative to others in their position group, accounting for the scheme that they play in. Our goal is to get to the most precise, data-based ranking of players and how good they are relative to their peers based on the play-by-play results they actually produce on the field.”
The havoc scale ranges from 0-100.
Benford may still be underrated nationally, but Buffalo's general manager Brandon Beane knows just how valuable he is with the recent contract extension he took care of him with. And if he keeps outperforming his sixth-round pick status from 2022, Benford could be one of the best investments Beane has made during his Bills' tenure.
