Kaiir Elam hasn’t yet taken the field for an exhibition game in the preseason, nevermind a regular season contest.
Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde is still already impressed with the rookie cornerback.
And truthfully, it doesn’t even have much to do with his play.
Certainly that’ll leave an impression, but where Hyde sees a promising sign in Elam is somewhere the trail was blazed ahead of him back in 2017.
That season was Hyde’s first in Buffalo. But he was a veteran at that point having started his career with the Green Bay Packers. The 2017 season was also cornerback Tre’Davious White’s first in Buffalo–but it was the first of his NFL career.
As a rookie, Hyde said White was always eager to learn and improve. Elam has that same mindset, according to Hyde.
“You can already tell he listens. He pays attention,” Hyde said via video conference. “You can tell as I’m saying stuff he’s taking mental notes. That’s how Tre’Davious was when he first got here. He was battling on the football field which is what Kaiir is doing, but also just learning from his mistakes and learning from the older guys.”
Soon after coming to the Bills via Buffalo’s first-round pick at the 2022 NFL draft, the story of Elam’s notebook caught wind. Upon having a pre-draft visit with the Bills, Elam brought his notebook that he kept every last detail in from his college game days at Florida.
That impressed Buffalo enough for them to use their top pick on him. Elam has evidently brought this trait to Orchard Park with him in Hyde’s mind.
Head coach Sean McDermott did tap the brakes on Elam’s early growth, though. According to the coach, the rookie cornerback has had some adjusting to do in practices.
“He’s been going through the normal rookie growing pains. You have a good play, how do you follow it up with another good play? You have a bad play, how do you reset and come back with a good play? Some of it is mental as much as anything,” McDermott said via video conference.
On the plus side, McDermott, Hyde, Elam and everyone will agree on one thing.
It’s better to get that out of the way now before the season starts.
Leave a Reply