The Buffalo Bills are bringing back some help for their secondary, re-signing a player who left the team late last month.
The Bills have been hit with a string of injuries to the cornerback room, including two standout rookies. The team brought in some help this week by signing a player who was with the team to start the season before being released after Week 3.
Bills Bolster Their Secondary
The Bills announced this week that they signed cornerback Jalen Kimber to their practice squad, adding some trusted insurance to the position. Kimber had joined the team in late August and was added to the practice squad to start the season, but was cut loose after the first three games.
Kimber spent time with the Tennessee Titans last year after going undrafted, but has yet to appear in his first NFL game. The former Penn State and Florida defensive back earned some buzz coming out of college, with draft expert Lance Zierlein of NFL.com predicting he could grow into an NFL regular.
âKimber has good size and impressive timed speed on paper, but his long speed tends to be more build-up than sudden,â Zierlein wrote. âHe has agile, quick feet and is fairly athletic in coverage, but heâs lacking the necessary instincts to make more plays on the football. His tackling improved in 2024, but heâs missing the play strength and toughness in run support that NFL teams want to see.”
Kimber will likely provide depth for the Bills after the team just lost two big pieces of the secondary.
Bills Waiting for Rookies to Return
The Bills lost first-round cornerback Maxwell Hairston in training camp when he suffered a knee injury, and he was placed on injured reserve to start the season. Fellow rookie Dorian Strong, who had been splitting playing time with veteran Tre’Davious White, was also placed on injured reserve after suffering a neck injury.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott said the team’s medical staff is working closely with Strong to determine the severity of his injury and just how much time he could miss.
“I don’t know much other than I don’t think anything at this point can be ruled out. So we’ll see where it goes,” McDermott said, via the team’s official website.
The team’s secondary struggled in last week’s loss to the New England Patriots, with McDermott saying they did not win enough one-on-one battles against receivers — especially former Bills star Stefon Diggs.
âIâve seen them play better than they did (Sunday) night,â McDermott said, via the Democrat and Chronicle. âAnd you look at it and say, âHey, are we winning enough outside one-on-one?â And the answer was no. So weâve got to be able to win those one-on-ones in key situations of the game. And we remain confident in both those guys.â
Nickel cornerback Taron Johnson said the team needs to spend this week figuring out what went wrong so they can correct it next week against the Atlanta Falcons.
âWeâve got to do better on defense,â Johnson said. âI feel like this is going to help us more than it hurts us. So, letâs go back to the drawing board and get better.â
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