Buffalo Bills may have capitalized on a mistake that the rest of the NFL made in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Zach Ragan | Last updated Apr 25, 2025 12:06 PM ET

The Buffalo Bills may have stumbled into selecting one of the top two or three players in the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday night despite not making their selection until near the end of the first round.

Buffalo selected Kentucky Wildcats cornerback Max Hairston (his first name is Maxwell, but he prefers Max) with the No. 30 overall pick on night one of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Hairston is an energetic and athletic cornerback that turned heads at the NFL scouting combine earlier this offseason when he ran a 4.28 in the 40-yard dash.

There's obviously plenty of upside with Hairston thanks to his athleticism and elite character traits.

Hairston, however, might be a top five player in the draft based on what one unnamed NFL team had to say about him ahead of the draft.

Shortly after Buffalo selected Hairston, NFL Films’ Greg Cosell joined One Bills Live to discuss the selection.

And Cosell pointed out that someone from an NFL team told him on Thursday morning that he thought that Hairston's tape at cornerback was better than Travis Hunter's tape at cornerback.

“I spoke to someone from a (NFL) team this morning -- I'm telling you, this came from someone from a team,” said Cosell. “So when people hear this, I don’t want them to think, ‘Oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ This came from a team. And the guy said to me that he thought Hairston, that his tape at corner, was better than Travis Hunter’s tape at corner. So take that for whatever it’s worth, but that came from a team.”

Hunter, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, is obviously a unique talent who can play on both sides of the ball, though many believe that he's best suited to play cornerback at the next level.

Some analysts thought Hunter was the best player in this year's draft. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who gave up a king's ransom to trade up to No. 2 to select Hunter, clearly agree with that sentiment.

The fact that Buffalo landed a player at the end of the first round who has tape that's comparable to Hunter's tape should be viewed as a major win for the Bills.

Obviously these are just words for now. We'll see how Hairston's career plays out over the next couple of years. But man, the Bills may have landed a perennial Pro Bowl player in Hairston simply because the rest of the league overlooked him because he's a bit undersized (measurable aren't everything...).

Again, it's just words for now, but Cosell's intel about Hairston should have Bills fans fired up about Buffalo's newest addition.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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