Bills' Dee Alford Breaks Silence After Agreeing to Free-Agent Contract

Alford is a fast, athletic, twitchy cornerback who possesses plenty of versatility. Along with lining up primarily at the slot corner position a season ago, Alford also played on the boundary, in the box and even lined up along the defensive line during the 2025 season.

Additionally, he has punt-return experience, which could fill a need for the Bills in 2026. Wide receiver Khalil Shakir has served as the team’s top punt returner for much of the last two seasons without offering much production.

Track record

Alford is 28 years old and has spent four seasons in the NFL, all with the Atlanta Falcons. He recorded a career year a season ago, finishing with 67 tackles, three interceptions, 13 passes defensed, two sacks and three quarterback hits. He played 57% of Atlanta’s defensive snaps in 2025, which was down from his 69% rate the season before.

Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich raved about Alford in a previous article posted to Atlanta’s team website.

“His versatility first and foremost,” Ulbrich said. “The ability to play outside and inside, I think people underestimate how difficult that is. Playing inside, especially in the system that we’ve put in here this year, is very linebacker-ish from a running perspective. It’s very corner-ish from a matching man perspective. It’s very safety-ish from a communication and a zone perspective.”

He added, “So, you have to learn so much. I haven’t seen a whole lot of guys have a lot of success swinging back and forth, especially within the same season, and he has done that in such an amazing way this year.”

Bills fans were not particularly enthused by Alford’s signing, but it came at a low cost, and he has received some heavy praise from a few impressive defensive minds. At the very least, that should give the team’s faithful following hope.