Buffalo Bills hiring pair of defensive coaches for Jim Leonhard’s new staff
First-time head coach Joe Brady continues to build his coaching roster for the Buffalo Bills, having made key hires across the board. With the announcement of the hiring of Jim Leonhard as defensive coordinator, the rest of the defensive coaching staff can now begin to take shape.
Brady and Leonhard are wasting no time, with recent news shared by Ian Rapoport via sources that the Bills are hiring Bobby April III as the team’s new outside linebackers coach. The moves continued Monday morning, as Adam Schefter reported that Buffalo would also bring back John Egorugwu — hiring him as inside linebackers coach — and Jay Valai would join the organization as its new cornerbacks coach, as first reported by Matt Zenitz.
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John Egorugwu named Bills ILB coach
John Egorugwu, 39, may be familiar to Bills fans, having previously worked as a defensive grade coach (2017) and then as an assistant linebackers coach (2018-20) while on former head coach Sean McDermott’s defensive staff. However, Egorugwu’s coaching career began well before his opportunity in Orchard Park, New York.
Egorugwu, a former Division II collegiate linebacker at William Jewell College, received his first coaching opportunity with his alma mater, serving as linebackers coach from 2010 to 2011. He then joined the University of Missouri as a defensive graduate assistant (2012), before being named an offensive graduate assistant for the Missouri football team in 2013.
In 2014, Egorugwu earned his first coaching opportunity in the NFL, serving as a defensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens for two seasons (2015-2016) before his first role with the Bills. After that three-year stint with One Bills Drive, Egorugwu returned to college coaching, accepting the position of linebackers coach for Vanderbilt University during the 2021 season.
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Egorugwu then returned to the NFL, where he worked for the New York Giants as the inside linebackers coach from 2022 to 2025 before being hired in the same role this offseason with Buffalo.
Jay Valai named Bills cornerbacks coach
A former All-Big Ten defensive back who played four years for the University of Wisconsin, Jay Valai comes to One Bills Drive as cornerbacks coach after a successful four-year stint as assistant head coach for defense/co-defensive coordinator/pass defense/cornerbacks and nickelbacks with the University of Oklahoma. During his time with the Sooners, Valai helped coach a defense ranked sixth overall nationally, according to Matt Zenitz.
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Valai entered the world of football coaching in 2016, working as a defensive quality control coach for the University of Georgia throughout the team’s 2017 campaign. He earned his first NFL coaching opportunity with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, working as a defensive quality control coach under head coach Andy Reid.
Then, in 2019, Valai returned to college football as the cornerbacks coach for the Rutgers University football program before accepting the same role with the University of Texas for the 2020 season. Valai’s next stop eventually led him to the University of Alabama as the cornerbacks coach – this, after previous reports linked Valai to both the University of Houston and then the Philadelphia Eagles in the same capacity in 2021.
Valai found his way to another college program in 2022, joining the Oklahoma Sooners football program before new Bills head coach Joe Brady and defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard hired him as Buffalo’s cornerbacks coach in February 2026.
