Maxwell Hairston injury status DB · BUF · Buffalo Bills
Will Maxwell Hairston play? Fantasy outlook
Rules-based guide, not a validated prediction and not betting advice. Lineup call: Bench or hold if listed Out or Doubtful, or chance of missing at least 75%; Have a backup ready at 50% to 75%; otherwise Start with caution if chance of missing is 25% or more, he did not practice or was limited, he has the returning-from-injury flag, or his typical (median) fantasy points rank below the top 50% of players at his position with a range this update; Bench or hold if that rank is in the bottom 25% and he is not a QB; Start otherwise. Next man up is named when chance of missing is 25% or more. Ranges assume he plays. Every sentence is filled from the sourced fields elsewhere on this page.
Lineup call
Not a typical fantasy start · Week 6 game (Oct 18)
Maxwell Hairston plays DB, which standard fantasy leagues do not score. 27% chance of missing his Week 6 game (Oct 18). For IDP leagues, see his defensive snaps, tackles, sacks ranges in Team contribution range below.
Next man up: Davison Igbinosun (77% of snaps over the last 3 team games).
Team impact
If he sits, the Buffalo Bills replace a starter who plays 65% of snaps; his next man up Davison Igbinosun has 202 career regular-season snaps vs his 610. Role impact 5.9 (High).
Injury reports this season: none in our 2026 data.
Played 21% of snaps in Week 5 after 97% in Week 4 (nflverse snap counts).
We have no return timeline or medical detail beyond the listed report.
Games without a snap while on the Buffalo Bills roster: none (of 5 team games).
How long could he be out?
He has no game status yet on the Week 6 report; his chance of missing is 27%. Of 2,862 past listings (2017–2025 regular seasons) where an earlier, out-of-fold version of our availability model gave a 25–50% chance of missing, 49% missed no games, 22% missed 1 game, 10% missed 2 games, 19% missed 3 or more in a row; median 1 game. This is history, not a prognosis for him.
Grouped by model chance, not by injury, because he has no game status to match on.
Held-out check: shares from 2017–2021 were within 4 points of what happened in 2022–2025 for this group.
Counts consecutive team games missed (0 offensive and 0 defensive snaps, or inactive or on a reserve list) starting with the game the listing was for; byes are skipped; runs cut short by the end of the season or a roster move are kept only if they had reached 3 games. Groups: status and body part, then status and position group, then status, whichever first has at least 30 past listings. nflverse injury reports, snap counts and weekly rosters, 2014–2025. No medical detail and no return timeline.
Similar past cases: median 1 game missed in a row.
History, not a prognosis.
Missed no games49%
Missed 1 game22%
Missed 2 games10%
Missed 3 or more19%
Maxwell Hairston
If he sits, the Buffalo Bills replace a starter who plays 65% of defense snaps; his backup Davison Igbinosun has played 77% over the same games.
Chance of missing: Frozen availability model (2026 blind test), prediction log update Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET. Status: nflverse injury report data (CC-BY-4.0), retrieved Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET. Usage impact: Share: nflverse player stats (CC-BY-4.0), last 3 team games, retrieved Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET; tiers fixed from 2017-2021 history (High at least 3.7, Medium at least 0.7 points). Role impact: Snaps: nflverse snap counts (CC-BY-4.0), last 3 team games, retrieved Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET; starter = top 2026 season snap share in his position group (no 2026 depth chart captured); backup experience = career regular-season snaps in nflverse snap counts; tiers fixed from 2017-2021 history (High at least 3.7, Medium at least 0.7 points).
Impact scores are small points on a fixed scale: his share of team usage (or role weight) times his chance of missing. High means the top 5% of 2017–2021 player-seasons, Medium the top 20%. The bold High badge appears only when a score is High and his chance of missing is at least 25%: 32 of 167 listed players this update.
DB
BUF · Buffalo Bills
27%chance of missing Week 6 game (Oct 18)
Report: not on this week's report yet · played 21% of snaps in Week 5 after 97% in Week 4 (nflverse snap counts)
Usage impact ⓘ— Not a key role
Role impact ⓘ5.9HighHigh
How the estimate changed
Why: the nflverse injury file has not changed since Oct 16, 2026 02:15 AM ET (same SHA-256 in the last 9 captures), and no nflverse input this model reads has changed since Oct 16, 2026 10:16 AM ET. nflverse posts injury updates about once a day, usually overnight, so the estimate moves when that file does. Source: manifest_live.jsonl.
No change yet: 27% in all 20 updates (Oct 15, 2026 06:15 AM ET to Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET).
Team contribution range: Week 6 game (Oct 18)
Most weeks, Maxwell Hairston adds between 15 and 69 defensive snaps. The projected middle is about 46.
How to read it ⓘA wide curve means a boom-or-bust week; a narrow one means a steadier floor.
80% range: low = 10th percentile, projected = the middle outcome (median, dotted line), high = 90th percentile; a solid dot marks the actual result once the game is graded. The curve is drawn through these three points for illustration only; its shape is not a modeled distribution. The range assumes the player plays (fit on played games only). Sources: frozen team-contribution unit models (fit on 2014–2025, beat a trailing 8-game baseline on held-out seasons). Prediction log update Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET.
If he plays
Assumes he plays. These ranges come from models fit only on games players actually played; so they do not account for his 27% chance of missing.
Tackles (solo plus assisted): usually 0.0 to 5.7, projected about 2.5.
Sacks: usually none (the 80% range tops out below 0.5 per game).
Teammates who gain if he sits
No usage-shift scenario this update. Usage-shift scenarios cover receivers, tight ends and running backs only; offensive-line and defensive snaps are not redistributed. See Next man up below for his backup.
Next man up
Snaps: nflverse snap counts (CC-BY-4.0), last 3 team games, retrieved Oct 16, 2026 06:22 PM ET; starter = top 2026 season snap share in his position group (no 2026 depth chart captured); backup experience = career regular-season snaps in nflverse snap counts; tiers fixed from 2017-2021 history (High at least 3.7, Medium at least 0.7 points).
Davison Igbinosun (DB): 77% of snaps (average of the last 3 team games) and 202 career snaps, versus Maxwell Hairston at 65% over the same 3 games and 610 career snaps. That drop-off drives the role-impact score of 5.9 (High).
In the news
Headlines and links only, last 7 days, matched by player name and team. Via the GDELT Project (gdeltproject.org); headlines belong to their publishers and are not reviewed or endorsed by us. Betting and promo outlets are excluded. Updated Oct 16, 2026 06:00 PM ET.