Buffalo Bills
Bills rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston was forced out of Tuesday’s practice with an injury.
Cornerback Dane Jackson said, via Matt Parrino of NewYorkUpstate.com, that Hairston suffered a non-contact injury on a "“freak trip up” during positional drills. The first-round pick left the field to be examined by the team’s medical staff.
“I was upset,” cornerback Christian Benford said. “That’s somebody who’s a pure-hearted kid. That’s someone you work with off the field so much and you put so much time in with them and then they fall like that. . . . I’m sick about that.”
There’s no further word on Hairston’s status at this point.
The Bills announced a pair of roster moves on Monday morning.
Buffalo has signed receiver Deon Cain and released defensive back Daryl Porter Jr.
This is Cain’s third stint with the Bills. A Colts sixth-round pick in 2018, he’s appeared in 15 career games with six starts. Cain has also spent time with the Steelers, Ravens, Eagles, and Panthers. He’s also played several seasons with the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL/UFL.
Porter had joined Buffalo as an undrafted free agent in the spring.
The Bills will be in pads for the first time this summer for Monday’s practice. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (knee soreness), receiver Curtis Samuel (hamstring), linebacker Terrel Bernard (hamstring), receiver Elijah Moore (leg soreness), and kicker Tyler Bass (pelvic soreness) are among the players who will not participate in the session, according to head coach Sean McDermott in his morning press conference.
The Bills activated tight end Dawson Knox and wide receiver Laviska Shenault back to the roster after they passed a physical. Both began training camp on the non-football injury list and missed the first four practices.
Knox was out with a hamstring injury, and Shenault had a lower leg strain.
Offensive linemen Spencer Brown (back) and Sedrick Van Pran-Granger (calf) have yet to practice. Linebacker Terrel Bernard and wide receiver Curtis Samuel missed Sunday’s practice with hamstring injuries. Wide receiver Elijah Moore did not practice on Sunday due to general leg soreness, and cornerback Taron Johnson had a veteran rest day on Sunday.
Wide receiver Tyrell Shavers was carted off Sunday with a right ankle injury.
Shavers, 25, appeared in three games with the Bills last season.
The Bills swapped out wide receivers Saturday.
The team announced it signed Kelly Akharaiyi to the roster and placed David White on reserve/retired.
White, 25, joined the Bills earlier this week. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2024, signing with the Jaguars.
He tore an ACL in Organized Team Activities with the Jaguars last spring and never played for Jacksonville.
Akharaiyi is an undrafted free agent who played at Mississippi State in 2024.
During his lone season with the Bulldogs, Akharaiyi appeared in 11 games and totaled 25 receptions for 391 yards and two touchdowns. He spent 2022-23 with UTEP and had 69 receptions for 1,308 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in 24 games.
Basketball legend Vince Carter wants to help one specific football team reach legendary status.
Carter, a minority owner of the Bills, doesn’t plan to be a silent partner.
“I’ve sat with the G.M., president, owner, the big boss,” Carter recently said, via Chris Vinel of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I’ve sat with everybody, and we’ve had conversations, and I just listen and learn. I don’t just want to have a name on it. I want to be involved.”
Carter sees involvement as a natural extension of ownership.
“I feel like if I’m going to invest in it, I want to be knowledgeable and know as much as I can,” Carter said. “I treat this like me as a player, coming in and learning nuances. This is one in the same.”
Carter played for eight NBA teams and had his number retired by two of them (Raptors and Nets). He’ll be working for NBC Sports as the NBA returns in 2025.
Still, he’ll be paying close attention to the NFL. And he’ll be doing what he can to help the Bills get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1993 — and to win it for the first time ever.
The Bills still have not signed James Cook to a contract extension, which means 2025 could be his final season in Buffalo. He is scheduled for free agency in March.
Despite that, the running back is in training camp and participating in drills.
General Manager Brandon Beane said Wednesday that he hopes Cook is with the team in 2026. Cook hopes so, too.
“I mean, we have talks. I’m never going to give up,” Cook said Thursday, via Joe Buscaglia of TheAthletic.com. “I mean, I deserve it — what I want, what I need. It’s going to eventually happen.”
The Bills extended the contracts of cornerback Christian Benford, defensive end Greg Rousseau, linebacker Terrel Bernard and wide receiver Khalil Shakir this offseason. Cook insinuated on social media early in the offseason that he was looking for $15 million a season, something that is unlikely with any team.
Saquon Barkley ($20.6 million per season), Christian McCaffrey ($19 million) and Derrick Henry ($15 million) are the only running backs making at least that much per season.
But someone will pay Cook what he’s worth after he makes $5.271 million in base salary this season and $8.106 million in base salary for his first four seasons.
Cook was asked what his confidence level is of staying in Buffalo beyond this season.
“I mean, however it happens, it’s going to get done. Wherever it happens,” he said.
Cook, a second-round pick in 2022, has rushed for 2,638 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career. The two-time Pro Bowler also has caught 97 passes for 883 yards with seven touchdowns.
Bills first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston spoke to reporters at Bills training camp for the first time since he was sued by a woman who accused him of sexual assault four years ago, when they were both students at Kentucky.
“This is something I’ve been dealing with since I was 17,” Hairston said. “It’s been four years now, and I went through this whole process with the police, they went through a thorough investigation, and I was exonerated from that. The University of Kentucky did a thorough investigation, I was exonerated from that as well. And I volunteered to do multiple polygraphs because I was determined to get my truth out there, because I had nothing to hide. I was an open book. I have two sisters that I love dearly, and I respect all females. I was just determined to get my truth out there. Like I said, I was an open book, and I was exonerated from both of those and just got to stay strong. But I’m confident that my truth will be out there and like I said I’m an open book.”
Hairston said the Bills asked him about it before the draft and he answered all their questions because he has nothing to hide.
“The Bills have been by my side from the start because they did their own thorough investigation,” Hairston said. “The people that know the truth know, and those are the people I’m sticking by and they’re sticking by me.”
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane believes Hairston was falsely accused, and the Bills have said they will stand by Hairston.
Bills first-round cornerback Maxwell Hairston was accused of sexual assault in college and was sued in connection with the incident this month, but Bills General Manager Brandon Beane says the team is very confident that Hairston did nothing wrong.
Beane says there are limits to what Hairston can say because of the legal process, but that everything he knows about Hairston tells him that he was falsely accused.
“It’s frustrating because in the legal world you can’t sit there and say things back and forth, you’ve got to let it go, but this happened to this young man over four years ago. He gave up his phone to prove, he took polygraph test, this kid didn’t run from it, he answered every single thing,” Beane said. “People can make accusations and do things and I have no idea what the agenda is there, but I can tell you every stone we turned over, every door we looked behind, this is a very good young man. A young man you would let in your house, you would let watch your kids, hang out with, whoever. He is genuinely a good person, he’s got sisters, he’s got a mother, he’s got a great family, raised the right way. I’ve met his parents, I’ve met his close family. I would feel terrible if someone said that about one of my sons.”
Beane said football players are sometimes the victims in false accusations. Although Beane did not mention former Bills draft pick Matt Araiza by name, he appeared to signal that he regrets cutting Araiza four months after drafting him in 2022 because of a sexual assault accusation that ultimately led to no criminal charges, and to Araiza filing a defamation lawsuit against the accuser.
“I think we need to remember in the world, sometimes these guys — I’m not going to get into it — but we see these accusations, sometimes these guys can be victims, too,” Beane said. “They make a lot of money. And I just want to make sure — rarely do people defend them. And that’s hard for me to see sometimes because I’ve seen it. We had it here with a player a few years ago that’s no longer here that was wrongly accused. And it’s frustrating and everyone should — anyone that’s met Maxwell Hairston genuinely knows what a great young man he is.”
Hairston was never criminally charged and was cleared by the University of Kentucky’s investigation.
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott told reporters before the Bills got on the field that he was anticipating James Cook would practice on Wednesday, even though the running back is seeking a new contract.
Via multiple reporters, Cook delivered on that expectation, as the running back took part in every drill.
After practice, General Manager Brandon Beane was asked what it says about Cook that he is not only in the building, but also fully participating.
“James is a competitive dude. He’s a stud. He’s a great teammate,” Beane said in his press conference. “He wants to be here. He loves ball. So many of the things that we learned about James through the scouting process — and it’s been fun to watch him grow and mature on and off the field. He’s got a calmness to him.
“Of course, who doesn’t want to get paid? And that’s the hard part of this job, is I do want to pay them all. I mean, I really do, especially the ones that are working hard, they’re producing on the field, their teammates love them, the fans love them. James fits Buffalo. But sometimes, you know, you can’t get on the same page or sometimes, you’re trying to fit it in. Or sometimes, guys have left here that we really wanted, we just couldn’t make it work. But I can tell you, I’m hopeful when we’re sitting here at next year’s training camp that James Cook is out there practicing and still representing the red, white, and blue.”
Beane noted that he had talked with Cook when the running back was in town for mandatory minicamp. At that time, Cook hadn’t determined whether or not he would practice during training camp. But he noted he showed up to avoid fines, saying, “I like my money.”
“We’ve always had a good relationship,” Beane said of Cook. “As I’ve said all along, I love James Cook. I want nothing more — you know how I am, I want to draft, develop, re-sign our own. It is a business. We have to fit it in, not only cash, but cap. And sometimes it’s not — you can look at it and say, well, you go this website or whatever, they could fit him in if they did this and this. But we also have to look at ’26, ’27, and beyond because you can walk yourself into one of those years where you’re like, oh man, there’s not a lot of guys we can take down on those years. We would have to trade or cut someone that we wouldn’t want to lose. So, it’s not only 2025 when we’re doing a deal with him or any other player. So, all those things have to make sense for us to fit it in.
“But, love James. He looks good. You can tell he’s been working. I thought he looked good in June camp and I think everyone knows I’m going to have an open dialogue with the players, that’s just who I am. And we’ll let the business take care of itself.”
A second-round pick in 2022, Cook has rushed for 2,638 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career. He’s also caught 97 passes for 883 yards with seven TDs.
Though he’s seeking a new contract, Bills running back James Cook reported to training camp this week.
Now, as Buffalo gets ready to be on the field, head coach Sean McDermott told reporters on Wednesday morning that he anticipates Cook will practice.
“He’s ready to go,” McDermott said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.
Cook, 25, is set to make $5.271 million in base salary for the coming season on the last year of his rookie deal. He led the NFL last year with 16 rushing touchdowns, earning his second consecutive Pro Bowl berth.
While Cook did not attend the voluntary portions of Buffalo’s offseason program, he was there for minicamp, saying, “I like my money.”
A second-round pick in 2022, Cook has rushed for 2,638 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career. He’s also caught 97 passes for 883 yards with seven TDs.