Maxwell Hairston and Ray Davis star for Bills in Hard Knocks Ep. 1
Last year, Big Blue Nation was treated to the occasional cameo from six-year Kentucky football veteran Brenden Bates in HBO’s Hard Knocks with the Chicago Bears. He was in the upper-left corner here and background there with the occasional one-liner or jersey nameplate on display in the huddle. We went nuts over a preseason catch on the big screen.
This time around, the Buffalo Bills not only have multiple former Wildcats, but three real contributors certain to make the team in the 2025 edition. No need to stretch content — “Great stretching, by the way, Bates,” was an actual line from the 2024 version of this post — this training camp.
How about a first-round pick in Maxwell Hairston? Or the mountain of a man known as Deone Walker, a fourth-round selection? Ray Davis has the best feel-good story in football — and he’s apparently not only the backup running back behind James Cook (currently holding out, mind you), but also the backup kicker.
The Kentucky Bills are going to be on full display this season of Hard Knocks, and it didn’t take long to make that clear on episode one, released late Tuesday evening.
First up? Mad Max, the franchise’s top draft pick in April — who got an entire segment of the show dedicated to him, particularly as two-time Pro Bowl corner Tre’Davious White’s understudy and the future of the secondary.
“There is some ability there,” Bills coach Sean McDermott told team owner Terry Pegula. “Max, it’ll be interesting to see him compete with Tre on the other side, starting camp. Seeing him compete, I’m excited to watch that.”
“Mad Max is getting up to speed quickly — fitting for the fastest player in April’s (NFL Draft) Combine,” narrator Liev Schreiber said, adding a note about Hairston’s friendly rivalry with White in the early stages of workouts.
“I just see so many similarities between me and the kid,” the 30-year-old White said of the former Wildcat. “Coming in where you’re the youngest guy on the defense, you have all of these expectations as a first-round pick, but he’s just so willing to learn and super talented. To have this raw athleticism nobody else has, the sky is the limit for him.”
Then comes the draft profile, starting with Hairston’s 4.28-second 40-yard dash in Indianapolis to cement his status as a first-rounder, followed by some of the key plays he’s made in training camp.
“Hey! Max! Good ******* play, man!” a Buffalo staffer yelled following a pass breakup.
“I feel like the more and more I go out there, the more reps I get with the ones, it builds comfort and confidence,” Hairston said. “Going over my playbook, studying the calls, and my teammates are making it an easier adjustment for me. I’ve got a good room looking after me. I’ve just been picking their brain.”
Later, Bills Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas watched the team’s first padded practice from the sideline and went out of his way to tell Buffalo GM Brandon Beane he’s got a nice eye for talent — particularly hitting on Hairston in the draft.
“You just know how to find them, don’t you?” Thomas said. “… Y’all know what type of players to look for and bring here. I saw the DB, 31. Mad Max? I saw him and I was like, that’s just a little version of Tre White!”
“High energy, great personality. Great kid, unbelievable kid,” Beane responded.
Then came the tough news from camp that made national headlines: Hairston going down with a knee injury — avoiding a torn ACL, fortunately, though his LCL sprain will keep him sidelined for at least three weeks. That sequence got the up-close-and-personal Hard Knocks treatment.
“Mad Max is playing fast and tough, impressing even the visiting legend,” Schreiber said, moments before Hairston came down awkwardly on a tackle and struggled to get up, adding, “The concern is obvious and the news is bad. The rookie has suffered a knee injury and will be out for weeks.”
White, who has suffered torn ACL and Achilles injuries in his own career, gave the former Wildcat some words of encouragement.
“The only thing I told him is what’s done is done,” he said. “The only thing you can do is get your body right, show up mentally by watching more film and get more into the playbook so when you come back, the details are down and you can hit the ground running.”
Then came a very cool clip featuring Bills cornerback Christian Benford that has since gone viral, the fourth-year pro taking the time to pull Hairston aside and pray for him moments after he went down.
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“Heavenly Father, please give him strength,” Benford prayed, putting his arm around Hairston. “As we honor everything you give us, please heal him. You know it’s never worse, as much as we think it is, Lord. God bless his mind, his soul, his body, his everything, Lord. Give him the strength, Lord. As we’re weak, bless everything we do because we can’t do it without you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
“We’re fortunate that it wasn’t worse,” McDermott said of the injury. “As much as I and we want him on the field now, we just have to be a little patient right now. He’s going to miss a tremendous amount of reps and experience through this, but he’s got a bright future.”
Episode one was about the start of training camp with all eyes on reigning MVP Josh Allen, four-time Pro Bowl tackle Dion Dawkins keeping the star QB upright, the new stadium being built in Buffalo and Hairston. Expect to see Ray Davis get his time in the spotlight soon, highlighting his inspirational bounce-back from childhood homelessness and time in the foster care system to scoring touchdowns in the NFL. The cameras are already rolling for that story.
Until then, we got a few glimpses of the former Kentucky superstar in the season debut of Hard Knocks. In fact, he was rocking a pair of UK shorts in his first time on the screen.
While his teammates were riding around campus on scooters, Davis was getting his cardio in by walking to camp in the blue and white.
When the pads started popping, Davis made it clear his favorite part of camp had arrived, bringing him back to his early days in football.
“It’s like Pop Warner, that first day you put on those pads. Everybody want to ******* hit. It’s our day, though. We love this ****. We embrace it.”
Then, like most football fans, he praised Josh Allen for throwing one of his many dimes to a pass-catcher — except he got to do it to his face, not from the couch like the rest of us.
“That’s a ******* dot over there, man,” Davis told Allen.
As for Big Deone, his screentime was limited to a few big-picture frames with the rest of his teammates — nothing individual quite yet. You can see his Walker-96 in the far left of the huddle below, but that’s about it.
He’s turning heads in practice, though, mostly because he’s a giant human doing giant human things. Maybe his “dancing bear” nickname will grab the producers’ attention in the next couple of weeks? Hard Knocks loves their rookies, after all.
Week one was a massive success for Kentucky fans — by far the biggest in series history. There should be more where that comes from.
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