The Bills have locked up one of their key defensive players.
According to multiple reports, cornerback Christian Benford has agreed to a four-year contract extension with Buffalo.
The initial numbers indicate Benford’s deal is worth $76 million.
Benford, 24, was a sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft but has emerged as a critical piece. He moved into a full-time starting rule in 2023. In 15 games last season, he recorded 10 passes defensed with two interceptions, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, and a sack.
The cornerback was headed into the final year of his rookie contract.
Benford is now among several players the club has extended this offseason, including quarterback Josh Allen, linebacker Terrell Bernard, and receiver Khalil Shakir.
It was reported as a three-year, $69 million deal with $26 million guaranteed. It is not.
The new Stefon Diggs contract falls short on both counts, based on the details reported by Albert Breer of SI.com.
Here they are:
1. Signing bonus: $12 million.
2. 2025 workout bonus: $200,000.
3. 2025 base salary: $2.9 million, fully guaranteed.
4. 2025 per-game roster bonus: $3.4 million total.
5. 2026 workout bonus: $200,000.
6. 2026 base salary: $20.6 million, $1.7 million of which is fully guaranteed and $6 million of which is guaranteed for injury at signing and becomes fully-guaranteed in March 2026.
7. 2026 per-game roster bonus: $1.7 million total.
8. 2027 roster bonus: $200,000.
9. 2027 base salary: $20.6 million.
10. 2027 roster bonus: $1.7 million total.
The contract has $4 million in 2025 incentives, with $500,000 unlocked at 70 catches, 80 catches, 90 catches, 100 catches, 1,000 yard, 1,100 yards, 1,200 yards, and 1,300 yards.
There’s also an annual $500,000 Pro Bowl incentive.
The base value of the deal is $63.5 million, NOT $69 million. To get to $69 million, Diggs needs to make the Pro Bowl every year and catch 100 passes for 1,300 yards in 2025.
The guarantee at signing is $16.6 million. The total guarantee is $22.6 million, NOT $26 million.
Apparently, the initial reports included the $3.4 million in per-game roster bonuses in the guarantee. Even if they are, they still must be earned. And Diggs — who suffered a torn ACL last season — will lose $200,000 for each game his misses.
It’s basically a one-year, $18.5 million deal that includes very high per-game roster bonuses. It can be $23 million, if he hits all incentives for 2025.
The Patriots can escape the deal by next March, with only $1.7 million (subject to offset) owed for 2026.
Obviously, an effort was made to make the Diggs deal look better than it is. It’s not worth $23 million per year over three. It doesn’t pay $26 million guaranteed. It has one year of security, with a team option as to whether it will continue for 2026 and then for 2027.
Wide receiver Stefon Diggs met the media as a member of the Patriots for the first time on Friday and his new quarterback was an early topic of conversation in his press conference.
Drake Maye had a good rookie season in New England and showed an ability to make plays with both his arm and his legs for a Patriots team that was short on playmakers. Diggs played with another quarterback who had similar skills when he was in Buffalo and Josh Allen’s name came up when Diggs was asked about his thoughts on Maye.
“I’m excited,” Diggs said. “I really look forward to it. It’s crazy because when you ask around, he has a lot of similarities — people say through the grapevine, he acts a lot like Josh. That was my guy, so I look forward to meeting and connecting with him.”
Diggs was also asked what role he thinks he can play in Maye’s continued development as an NFL player.
“Seeing that I got the experience, I’ve been doing this for ten and a half years — I always add the half now — but I’ve played with a lot of quarterbacks,” Diggs said. “I’ve been around a lot of quarterbacks, so learning the quarterback, getting to know him, spending more time with him. Once you know somebody on a more personal level, I feel like it’s a lot of carry-over to the field, whether they’re risk-takers or like to play aggressive, like to play smart, and just honing in on what he’s good at. We played him last year. He shows a lot of fight. He got that fiery quarterback, ‘I want to win’ mindset. That’s something that I get excited about and love to be around. But, as far as his development as a quarterback, I feel like that’s not really too much of my job. My job is to get up and catch the ball. I just look forward to getting back out there and being one of the weapons for him.”
Diggs noted that he was on pace for around 100 catches and 1,000 receiving yards when he tore his ACL midway through last season before saying he is looking forward to “getting back on track.” If that looks like the Diggs who played with Allen in Buffalo, the Patriots offense should look a lot better in 2025.
Sports books have started taking bets on NFL teams’ 2025 win totals, and four of the top teams from last year are expected to be at the top of the league again this year.
The Eagles, Chiefs, Bills and Ravens’ win totals were set at 11.5, the highest in the NFL for this season.
Plenty can change between now and the start of the season, from the draft to trades to free agent moves to the schedule giving some teams more rest days than others. It’s possible that by the time the regular season starts, the win total expectations will be different. But right now, those four teams stand above the rest.
Next in the win total order are the Lions and 49ers, each at 10.5. The Buccaneers, Chargers, Rams, Texans, Broncos, Packers, Bengals and Commanders are all listed at 9.5 wins.
How much of a push is there to ban the tush push?
The time to put the cards on the table is coming very soon, with the league’s owners due to meet next week in Florida. That’s when proposed rule changes get a vote (or, if they’re going to fail, they get pulled or tabled).
After news first surfaced of the Packers proposing a change to the rule that allows a ballcarrier to be pushed from behind, we asked several coaches and General Managers about it at the Scouting Combine. None had a problem with it — other than Bills coach Sean McDermott, whose team uses a version of it (effectively) but who acknowledges the safety concerns.
The injury data, to the extent there is any, doesn’t show it. Obviously, it’s a high-intensity play. Former Eagles center Jason Kelce has said he’d scream “fuck my life” every time they ran it.
The question becomes whether 24 total teams are willing to un-eff the lives of current and future Eagles centers. More specifically, the question becomes whether 24 total teams will vote for a flawed proposal, which bans only the “immediate” pushing of the ballcarrier.
If the league wants to get rid of the tush push, the simplest fix would be to revert to the pre-2006 rulebook, which prohibited both pulling and pushing of the ballcarrier. Alternatively, pushing of the ballcarrier could be banned within the tackle box. Or within two yards of the line of scrimmage.
We’re mentioning it because of this observation about a tush-push ban from Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com: “I feel like it’s getting more momentum in terms of those opposed to it than I’ve ever heard before.”
That’s all relative, of course. If there’s never been much momentum against the play (and there hasn’t been), any momentum would be more than ever before.
All that matters for present purposes is 24. Is there a proposal, any proposal, that would get 24 owners to support it. Most importantly, would that proposal truly ban the maneuver?
The Packers’ proposal would merely delay it. If there are 24 owners who want to get rid of it entirely, it would be very easy to do it. The fact that there’s no clean and simple and direct proposal that would ban the play suggests that the league remains a long way away from having the requisite 24 votes.
Matt Stevens, a safety on the Patriots’ 2001 Super Bowl XXXVI championship team, died March 20, the team announced Thursday. Stevens was 51.
Stevens entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Bills in 1996.
He played eight seasons, spending time in Buffalo, New England, Philadelphia, Washington and Houston.
In the Patriots’ 2001 championship season, Stevens appeared in all but one game and totaled 43 tackles in 15 regular-season games. He added six more tackles in the three playoff victories, including the Super Bowl XXXVI victory over the Rams.
Stevens appeared in 108 games, recording 301 tackles, 13 interceptions and a sack.
In 2007, Stevens was involved in a motorcycle accident that injured his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He participated in clinical trials for the ReWalk device in 2011, a wearable exoskeleton that enabled him to regain mobility with the assistance of special leg braces.
The Patriots said in a statement that, “Matt Stevens’s legacy is marked by his contributions to professional football, his determination to overcome personal adversity, and the inspiration he provided to many through his resilience and dedication.”
The Packers have proposed a rule change that would attack the so-called “tush push.” With the annual league meetings only days away, it’s looking like there’s not nearly enough of a push to get 24 total owners to vote for the proposal.
On Tuesday, Mark Maske of the Washington Post posted this on Twitter: “It’s unclear whether the Packers’ proposed ban of the tush push will get the 24 votes among the 32 NFL owners necessary to be approved, source says: ‘Not sure it can get 24.’ The sentiment is mixed on the NFL competition committee about the proposal. The owners meet next week.”
Frankly, the fate of the proposal looks more than “unclear.” If the “sentiment” in the Competition Committee is “mixed,” that’s not a good sign for securing a supermajority when it’s time for the owners to vote on the change.
When news of the proposal first emerged early in the week at the Scouting Combine, nearly every coach and G.M. who was asked about the tush push on PFT Live had no problem with the play. Yes, Bills coach Sean McDermott — whose team uses a version of the maneuver — has expressed concern about the impact of the play on player health and safety. But no one has publicly seconded his position. And no one else has said, on- or off-the-record, that the change must be made.
Part of the problem is the formulation of the proposal. The wording doesn’t ban the pushing of the tush. It prevents it from happening “immediately” at the snap. Which makes for an easy workaround. Apply the push as part of the second effort to shove the ball past where the offense is trying to move it. Which is what the Eagles typically do, anyway.
It’s definitely unclear whether a better-worded proposal would have a chance to get 24 votes. The Packers’ proposal seems to be dead in the water due at least in part to the fact that their proposed change won’t really change anything.
Which points to this potential outcome: A withdrawal of the proposal or at most a tabling of it until May.
One of the top remaining free agents has a new home.
Per multiple reports, receiver Stefon Diggs has agreed to terms with the Patriots. It’s a three-year, $69 million deal. Via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, $26 million is guaranteed.
The structure of the contract will reveal much about the extent of the commitment. The key will be the full guarantee at signing.
With Diggs recovering from a torn ACL suffered during the 2024 season, the deal also could include significant per-game roster bonuses tied to Diggs’s ability to play.
In eight games last year with the Texans, Diggs caught 47 passes for 496 yards and three touchdowns.
The Patriots will become Diggs’s fourth team. He has previously played for the Vikings and Bills before being traded last year to Houston.
The Bills will start playing in their new staudium in 2026. This week, they’ll commence the selling of season tickets.
According to the Buffalo News (via Sports Business Journal), the team has confirmed that the first group of 300-level season ticket holders will learn this week the price of Personal Seat Licenses and tickets for comparable seats in the new facility.
The 300 level — the lower of the two upper levels — is expected to have a PSL price of $5,500 per seat. In the 400 level, the PSL is expected to be as high as $2,500 and as low as $1,000.
The Bills are providing the information through a “Stadium Experience Center,” with the goal of having every season-ticket account holder experience the experience before the start of the 2025 season. Then, those on the waiting list will have a chance to buy any remaining tickets.
It will be interesting to see whether and to what extent loyal season-ticket holders will feel priced out of the new building. Especially with the cost of the new building getting pricier and pricier.
It’s one thing to say, “The tush push must go!” It’s another thing to come up with a specific formulation of the rule that accomplishes that objective.
The Packers have submitted a proposal that would ostensibly end the short-yardage play that the Eagles have perfected.
Here’s the language that the Packers have submitted: “No offensive player may . . . immediately at the snap, push or throw his body against a teammate, who was lined up directly behind the snapper and received the snap, to aid him in an attempt to gain yardage.”
If the rule will be enforced as written, there’s a clear flaw in it. It prevents pushing the ballcarrier “immediately at the snap.”
The Eagles usually don’t push quarterback Jalen Hurts “immediately.” The play begins as a quarterback sneak, with a push from behind to get Hurts (and the ball) past the line to gain or the goal line.
So even if at least 23 other teams are willing to support Green Bay’s proposal, the revised rule as written doesn’t really solve the problem.
That’s the challenge. Coming up with specific language that eliminates the targeted behavior.
The problem began when, in 2006, the league removed the rule against pushing the ballcarrier. Sixteen years later, teams like the Eagles (and the Bills) began using the ability to push a ballcarrier strategically, from the snap.
Pulling the ballcarrier remains against the rules. If the “tush push” is to be pushed out of the rulebook, the easiest solution would be to turn the clock back to 2005.
Another possibility would be to prevent pushing the ballcarrier in the tackle box. Or within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
Regardless, a rule banning a teammate from “immediately” pushing the ballcarrier won’t matter. The Eagles would keep running the quarterback sneak — and they’d be careful to make the pushing of the quarterback not “immediate.”
