ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The ink is barely dry on Jim Leonhard’s contract as defensive coordinator, and already the ghost of draft past is haunting One Bills Drive. With Leonhard bringing his aggressive, linebacker-dependent 3-4 scheme to Buffalo, one question screams louder than the rest: Who is going to run it?
General Manager Brandon Beane has spent years building a 4-2-5 nickel machine tailored to Sean McDermott. That era is dead. Now, as the Bills stare down the barrel of Matt Milano’s impending free agency and a massive scheme shift, a painful realization has settled in. If they could turn back the clock to last April, they wouldn’t have drafted cornerback Maxwell Hairston. They would have taken the guy tearing it up in Philadelphia.
The 2025 Regret: Speed vs. The Solution
Let’s be clear: Maxwell Hairston isn’t a bust. When healthy, the Kentucky product showed flashes of that 4.28 speed that got him drafted in the first place. But availability is the best ability, and missing a month of his rookie season killed his momentum. More importantly, his slender 180-pound frame struggles against the physical monsters of the AFC East.
NFL.com’s Blake Brockermeyer just dropped a bomb with his “2025 NFL Re-Draft,” and it hits Bills Mafia right where it hurts. In his revisionist history, Buffalo doesn’t take Hairston. They take Jihaad Campbell, the Alabama linebacker who fell to the Eagles.
While Hairston was learning to jam receivers without getting washed out, Campbell was busy replacing Nakobe Dean in Philly and looking like a seasoned pro. He’s a violently versatile defender—capable of thumping run gaps and erasing tight ends in coverage. In short: he is the prototype for a Jim Leonhard defense.
“You watch the film on [Campbell] in Philly, and he just flows. He doesn’t think; he strikes. That’s the kind of trigger we need in the middle right now. We’re looking for dogs who can play three downs, not specialists.”
— Anonymous AFC Scout on the Bills’ linebacker needs
The Milano Dilemma
Here is why the Campbell miss stings so much today. Matt Milano is a free agent next month. He’s been the heartbeat of this defense for nearly a decade, but his body has taken a beating. His contract demands will likely hover near the top of the market, and for a team tight on cap space, that’s a problem.
If Buffalo had drafted Campbell last year, this wouldn’t be a conversation. Campbell would be on a cheap rookie deal, ready to slide into the starting weakside linebacker role, allowing the Bills to let Milano walk without the defense collapsing. Instead, Beane is backed into a corner: pay an aging star a fortune or enter the 2026 season with a gaping hole in the middle of a new defense that requires elite linebacker play.
What’s Next: The Leonhard Shift
Leonhard’s defense lives and dies by “simulated pressures”—showing blitz and dropping into coverage, or sending heat from unexpected angles. This requires linebackers who are chess pieces, not just tackling dummies. Hairston helps the secondary, sure, but he doesn’t solve the front-seven math.
Beane has a massive decision to make before the market opens in March. If they can’t retain Milano, the Bills must pivot immediately to finding a “Campbell-lite” in this year’s draft. The window isn’t closing, but the room for error just vanished.
