Aside from possessing the last name Stone, nothing has ever been set as such for one of the Buffalo Bills’ most recent free-agent signings.
It’s been a rocky road at times for the 5-foot-11, 207-pounder along his football journey, but it’s a path that has led safety Geno Stone to his current NFL home in Western New York after he recently signed a one-year, $1.4 million deal with Buffalo 12 days ago.
The contract, which included just $187,000 in guarantees at the time of putting pen to paper at One Bills Drive, is a far cry from the two-year, $14 million pact he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals back on the opening day of free agency in 2024.
That contract garnered Geno $6 million guaranteed once the ink dried.
So, it’s not hard to see the difference.
The moment upon signing that deal was a time in his NFL tenure when Stone was coming off a career-high in interceptions — ranking second in the league and leading all safeties with a total of seven of the coveted takeaway variety — while on the Baltimore Ravens the year prior, and it was a signal that seemed to indicate the defensive back had finally arrived at the doorstep of football relevancy after years of being dismissed by doubters.
He had just nearly made it to the Super Bowl with the Ravens in 2023, helping Baltimore earn the AFC’s top-seed in the postseason before the team ultimately fell 17-10 at home to the Kansas City Chiefs in the conference championship game.
And, now he was getting set to join a Cincinnati team, led by rising superstar quarterback Joe Burrow, that had just made it to the league’s pinnacle game in 2021, all while being paid handsomely — relatively speaking, of course — for the first time in his professional career.
Yeah, things were looking up.
It appeared as if Stone was about to cement his status in the NFL once and for all.
But, that didn’t happen, as things didn’t quite go as planned once his papers were processed with the Bengals.
Nothing clerically went wrong, just the performance of the team — and Stone — on the field.
Cincinnati missed out on the postseason in both seasons with the safety at the helm in the secondary, mustering just 15 wins in 34 regular-season matchups over the two-year span under head coach Zac Taylor.
And, although he was able to collect 185 total tackles, 10 pass deflections, six interceptions, four tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, and one fumble recovery while starting all 34 of those outings in his time with the team, it wasn’t all pretty for the once prized free agent.
For starters, his missed-tackle rate ranked 10th worst in the league last year according to Next Gen Stats and was worst amongst all NFL safeties according toPro Football Focus, which isn’t exactly the type of category you want to be hearing your name on, even if you are a player more known for being a ballhawk than laying the lumber.
It’s a point of emphasis for him as he’s about to enter the start of offseason workouts, but it’s not something he can truly work on until the pads come on this summer.
Stone was adamant, however, that there’s more to it than meets the eye when it comes to completing a tackle, no matter how obtuse it may sound.
“I’m definitely a willing tackler. It’s not like I’m not. I mean, I had over 100 tackles last year, and there’s not many safeties that do that every year. So, I’m definitely a willing tackler. I think, my thing is, (it’s) my technique that I need to clean up, and I’m aware of that. I’m a pro. It’s nothing (where I’m going) to hide about it. So, that’s the one thing about being a pro, you know, being able to be accountable with things, and that’s one thing I want to work on,” Stone said in his introductory press conference with local media over Zoom.
“All it is is repetition. You know what I mean? Practice can only make it better. And, like you said, once you get that confidence back and you have a lot of games under your belt and you have a few games stacked up (where) you’re really playing good, it helps a lot. And, also at the same time, it helps when you’re playing good as a team. I’ve been on a great defense (in the past) where, you know, things get eliminated when you play fast and play with a great defense. And, then there’s times where, you know, when your defense is last in rushing (defense) in the league or whatever it may be. I mean, there’s going to be a lot of holes everywhere and people are making mistakes. So, I think it’s not just an individual thing. It’s also a team thing.”
Appearing in 1,014 snaps for the season, Stone was also ranked a measly 81st out of 98 qualifying safeties by Pro Football Focus in 2025 with an overall grade of 54.3, a coverage grade of 50.7 — which was 77th out of 98 — and a run-defense grade of 53.9, landing him at 90th in the site’s rankings for the category.
Needless to say, it was a rough stretch.
He knows it.
He’s not oblivious to the outside noise, especially from media critics and unbashful fans.
Furthermore, if his latest financial proposition from the Bills is any indication, the rest of the league views him in a similar unflattering light, as well.
It’s hard to ignore.
People are back to doubting the instinctive defender just like they did when he was merely an afterthought coming out of college.
But, that’s ok. It’s nothing new.
Stone has been dealing with detractors for as long as he can remember, dating all the way back to his days as an adolescent.
Despite being a sensational three-sport athlete, and splitting his time at three separate positions on the football field while coming up the ranks as a young player at New Castle Junior/Senior High School in New Castle, Pennsylvania, the veteran safety was seemingly overlooked all those years ago when he was coming out of The Keystone State as an 18-year-old in 2017.
No initial offers came from the big-time local schools like Penn State, Pittsburgh, or even Temple, all of which were within easy driving distance of the New Castle Hurricane standout’s stomping grounds in Lawrence County.
Puzzling, to say the least.
Even more so considering the fact that the soon-to-be 27-year-old was an All-State performer as a senior while manning spots at quarterback, wide receiver, and defensive back — which is where he really shined — en route to tallying 97 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 10 interceptions, and three sacks in his final high-school campaign.
But, the phone wasn’t ringing.
Not from any Power-5 schools, anyway.
Somehow rated as just a two-star recruit, Stone had heard plenty from mid-major programs like Ball State, Delaware, Miami (Ohio), and, coincidentally, the University at Buffalo, but it wasn’t what he wanted.
So, although he initially committed to hopping the Pennsylvania-Ohio border to join head coach Paul Haynes and the Golden Eagles just 68 miles down the road at Kent State University as an impending freshman following his endeavors in high school, when the legendary Kirk Ferentz and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes swooped in with an offer for the opportunistic defensive back rather late in the recruiting process — Stone didn’t hesitate to turn heel and make his way to the Big Ten campus in Iowa City, Iowa — setting himself up to be highlighted on one of college football’s biggest stages.
And, although it was over a nine-hour drive and 635 miles away in the heartland of the Midwest, Stone’s desire to set himself apart from the rest led him to his eventual alma mater.
While donning the black and gold, the Pennsylvania native went on to register 127 combined tackles, seven pass deflections, six interceptions, four forced fumbles, four tackles for loss, one sack, and one fumble recovery in 21 starts across three seasons at Iowa before forgoing his senior season in 2020.
When entered into the draft, the defensive back was once again overlooked by NFL talent evaluators before he eventually went on to become the 219th-overall pick of the Ravens that year.
The COVID draft.
Dropping all the way to the seventh round during the fully-virtual event wasn’t where Stone was projected to go, but it was par for the course for the seemingly always questioned underdog.
It was just another bump, though, in the rocky road taken by Buffalo’s newest safety, and one that has led him straight to where he believes he’s supposed to be heading into his seventh season.
He’s hoping it’s his lucky year.
So, despite not realizing it at the time, his collegiate connections and experiences that once helped get him into the NFL brotherhood would eventually form a winding path to Orchard Park — a place that he’s hoping to regain respectability amongst his peers.
“Really just, you know, talking to my agent — (it was about) kind of me getting back into a winning culture. My agent also represented Micah Hyde, so that’s another person that I was able to get information (from) about the whole organization (and what it’s) about. So, especially he’s a fellow Hawkeye of mine, and so just knowing what he did here, (it persuaded me), you know? He came from Green Bay. He came here, and it really pushed his career a lot longer just being here and being around all the guys and kind of the things they’ve done here. It’s kind of one of the (reasons for my) decisions I came here, you know? Also, having Josh Allen on the other side of the ball, knowing I got another great quarterback I get to play with (was a big factor),” Stone added.
“I talked to Micah even when he played here. I kind of asked about the organization, things like that, you know? And, just over the weekend talking to my agent — we always said the Bills are one of the better organizations to be with, and he’s always raved about it. So, you know, for me it was just an easy decision.”
Although he never suited up with Hyde at Iowa, the former Hawkeye was actually collegiate teammates with another former Bill, A.J. Epenesa, whom he shared the field with numerous times in front of 69,250 fans at Kinnick Stadium during their three seasons together on campus.
Both players entered the school as freshmen in 2017 and left a year early as juniors following their 2019 season.
Stone noted that the defensive end never had a bad thing to say about Buffalo, either, and it only strengthened his intrigue surrounding the idea of one day joining the team.
And, despite neither of those two players actually being present in Western New York with the safety as the beginning of offseason workouts quickly approaches, he feels at home.
That feeling is due in large part to the fact that Buffalo’s new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard gives him an eerily similar vibe to that of another coach he’s had the pleasure of crossing paths with during his travels throughout the league . . . Mike Macdonald.
You might’ve heard of him?
“(Jim’s) been around, like, a lot of backgrounds, so he’s kind of making a defense that’s going to be all those (past defenses) kind of mixed together, and he’s going to make it his own. So, you know, I’ve been in a situation like that before (with) Mike Macdonald his first year (in Baltimore). So, it’s going to be kind of cool (to see it develop), you know? Everyone’s going to learn the system for the first time, and everyone gets to make it their own. And, especially as players, (we) kind of get to go out there and feel it out, and then kind of see how everything goes. I think that’s the best part, you know? First time (with) everyone learning it, and you’re all going to learn together. So, if we have mistakes, at least it’s going to be together and no one’s really more advanced (than) someone with the defense or someone (being) less advanced. So, I think that’s the best part,” Stone said.
“I think they’re going to use me to my strengths and — that’s the main thing I want to do at this point in my career is play (to) my strengths and limit my weaknesses — really just get the best out of what I can do, you know? There’s a lot of things I want to clean up in my game that I plan on doing this next year. So, that’s kind of how I look at it right now.”
And although Leonhard isn’t the head man in charge like Macdonald has been in Seattle the past two seasons, leading the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title just this past year, the possibilities of what could be for Stone in 2026 under a similarly defensive-minded coach was certainly enticing for the recent free-agent signee.
Leonhard was also a member of the Big Ten Conference during a similar timeline as the newest Bills safety, as he was the defensive coordinator at the University of Wisconsin from 2016 to 2022, where he undoubtedly caught a glimpse of the defender’s game-changing abilities while at the rival school.
Now, the two will get to work together.
As for his newest head coach, though, Stone is certainly comfortable with the prospects of playing for Joe Brady also, as Buffalo’s recently appointed “CEO” presented him with a warm welcome to Orchard Park during his time at the facility.
The two hit it off, and the energy was palpable.
“Just being around Joe, right now the attitude he has, he wants you to be yourself and — whoever you are — just be that. And, I think he’s bringing that mentality (of winning),” Stone said in regard to his boss.
“He wants to win now. Everyone knows how it kind of is here, and it’s been close many years, and I think that’s why they’re making a new change — to get over that (hump) and hopefully take that next step.”
So, although Stone probably didn’t want to make another switch to another NFL city after seemingly having found a fit with the Bengals during his last go-around in free agency just two years ago, change is sometimes a good thing.
Buffalo is hoping it made the right move with Brady.
Brady and Leonhard are hoping they did the same by bringing aboard Stone.
Some may view him as a fringe roster player, and that the team could simply draft a player at his position in just a few short weeks, making him an easy expenditure to forget about by the time training camp rolls around at St. John Fisher University in Pittsford, New York, at the end of July.
But, Stone doesn’t see it that way.
He knows that the connections he’s made along the way in his collegiate and NFL commute have brought him to where he’s going to once again thrive just as he did three short seasons ago.
He’s been at the doorstep of football glory once before, but the last two seasons have felt like he’s been stuck on the NFL’s unsettling porch of purgatory while struggling to stay relevant in Cincinnati.
That’s in the past, though, and he must forget about the pleasantries and kick the door down if he wants to reclaim the career that he’s fought so hard for.
It’s now or never.
The Bills believe in him, and he’s here to prove them right while simultaneously silencing the doubters in the process — something he’s done at other stops along this rocky road.
But, a smooth journey wouldn’t be fitting for this veteran’s NFL turnpike. Not for a guy named Stone.
A few bumps were always expected.
It hasn’t slowed him down yet, and he’s only hoping to shift things into a higher gear this year as he and his new teammates in Buffalo look to cross the country by season’s end en route to eventually hoisting the Lombardi Trophy following the conclusion of Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
A lofty goal for sure. But, he’s always had high hopes . . . no time to change that now.
“They’re going to use my strengths. They said they’d like to see me in the post and let my instincts take over and go take the ball away. That’s kind of what they said. They didn’t have as many turnovers as they wanted last year, and that’s kind of why they brought me in — to go get the ball — so that’s kind of how I envision myself and how I see myself . . . when it’s time to go get the ball, they’re going to put me in the post,” Stone said.
“They’re going to get a guy that’s going to compete every day, you know? A guy that’s going to be in the right spots at the right time, and a leader. Now I’m seven years in the league, and I feel like I’ve been around a lot to know what it takes to be a pro in this league and what it takes to win. My past few years, I haven’t really gotten many of them wins and to be able to get to the playoffs, but I know what it kind of takes to get to the next step, and, you know, my goal is to get back to the AFC Championship — win that — and get into the Super Bowl.”
Good luck, Geno.
Bills Mafia will surely be behind you.
Editor’s babble: Many thanks to John Green for his contributions to our blog. You can also find John on X @JGreen_PRsports.
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