FRISCO, Texas — When Kaiir Elam was traded to the Dallas Cowboys last week, his mother, Shayla Davis, sent him some pictures.
They were from Cowboys games in 2006 at Texas Stadium and in 2011 at AT&T Stadium when his father, Abram Elam, was a safety for the team.
“Kind of just a surreal moment,” Kaiir said. “A full-circle moment.”
He was 5 years old when his dad made the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He was 10 when Abram returned as a free agent from the Cleveland Browns and started every game at safety in 2011.
From the front office — owner and general manager Jerry Jones, executive VP Stephen Jones and VP of player personnel Will McClay — to the equipment room to the athletic training room to the support staff, there are people in the Cowboys organization who remain from Abram’s playing days in Dallas.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer played at the University of Florida, like Kaiir. Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus coached Abram with the Browns and Cowboys. When Eberflus was the Chicago Bears’ coach, Kaiir was thought of highly in the draft process.
“He’s got people [in Dallas] he can trust,” Abram said.
Kaiir was a first-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2022, No. 23 overall, but he did not become an every-game starter in his three seasons there. He had two interceptions as a rookie when Leslie Frazier was the Bills’ defensive coordinator. An ankle injury in 2023 sent him to injured reserve, and there were times in his final two seasons in Buffalo when he was a healthy scratch.
“Ultimately, it’s on me,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said when asked why the Elam selection did not pan out. “I made the selection that didn’t work out, and I own that … I’m rooting for Kaiir. I really am. The guy worked so hard, and I’m confident, maybe a reset for him, give him a chance. I’m pulling for him. I think everyone at One Bills Drive hopes it works out for him.”
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The Cowboys, who gave up a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 seventh-rounder in exchange for Elam and a 2025 sixth-round pick, need it to work out.
With Trevon Diggs’ status uncertain because of left knee surgery late last season and the departure of Jourdan Lewis to the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency, Elam is penciled in as a starting cornerback opposite DaRon Bland at the moment.
With how his time in Buffalo went down, Elam said he has something to prove.
“Coming into Buffalo, I was a kid. I just wanted to improve and learn and really show off my talents, but I was always put in the backseat,” he said. “So I continued to put my head down and work and continued to make plays throughout the season and playoffs and stuff like that.
“This time around I got less and less opportunities. So I just felt like I took everything I learned from there and all the baggage and all the improvements that I felt like I needed to make; I just packaged it up and I been working on it every single day. I don’t really see it as a negative. I see it as a growing opportunity for me to go shine somewhere else.”
Said Abram, “He’s 23 years old. There’s rookies coming out this year that are older than him.”
The Cowboys have long given second chances to high draft picks after it did not work out in their first stop. Some have worked out, like tackle Marc Colombo, who was a teammate of Elam’s father after a serious knee injury ended his time with the team that drafted him, the Bears. Colombo started every game he played for the Cowboys from 2006 to 2010.
“I just need the opportunity, the full opportunity, to go take the ball away and show my physicality and be the playmaker that I know I am and that I once was in college,” Kaiir said.
In three years at Florida, he had six interceptions and 20 pass deflections. He had the size (6-foot-2, 196 pounds) and speed defensive coordinators crave in cornerbacks. When healthy, Diggs and Bland have shown the ability to take the ball away, and the Cowboys need that from Elam.
“I’m confident because I’m coming into a staff that truly really believes in me,” Elam said. “I don’t think they would’ve made the move if they didn’t want to see the best for me.
“I feel like everything starts with an opportunity, so if I’m able to come in here and compete and show what I can do, that’s all I really would want. I don’t need a red carpet or anything like that. I just want to be able to earn it with a fair opportunity. That’s what I’m going to strive every day to do. Like I’m coming in with a chip on my shoulder, and really with a deep breath, and really excited to take on whatever comes up under me next, not looking in the past.”
Except when he looks at the photos of him and his father from years ago that take on a new meaning now.
