Jim Leonhard continues to pull from former Wisconsin Badgers and coaches as he assembles his Buffalo Bills defensive coaching staff. He just hired former OLBs coach from the Paul Chryst days, Bobby April III, to be the Bills' OLBs coach. Leonhard actually stole him from the Minnesota Golden Gophers, which is fun. Now he's targeting Jay Valai to join his staff, according to Matt Zenitz.
You may remember Jay Valai from his playing days. He was a Wisconsin defensive back from 2006 to 2010 and was a defensive captain in his final season. Valai was never a coach at Wisconsin. He worked his way into the coaching ranks via a different path, but he's a Badger deep in his core. Now, it looks like he may join Leonhard in Buffalo.
The #Bills are targeting Oklahoma assistant head coach for defense/co-DC Jay Valai for a defensive backs coach job, sources tell @CBSSports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 1, 2026
Valai, who has been of interest to other NFL teams too as well as Notre Dame, helped OU rank sixth nationally in total defense this year. pic.twitter.com/GgeaCCLejK
Jim Leonhard is looking at hiring former Badger Jay Valai to his Buffalo Bills coaching staff
Related: The fun things Buffalo Bills fans are saying about former Badger Jim Leonhard
After his days as a Badger, he disappeared for a bit, then jumped into coaching when the NFL path didn't open for him as a player. He started as a defensive quality control coach for the Georgia Bulldogs in 2017. That led him to the Kansas City Chiefs in the same role and working under Andy Reid. He finally got a break into a position he really wanted: cornerbacks coach at Rutgers in 2019.
In 2020, he coached defensive backs for Texas and then in 2021 for Alabama. He was then hired to be the defense backs and co-head coach for the Oklahoma Sooners where he's served since. He's now may get another chance in the NFL this time as an actual coach on Leonhard's staff.
While Leonhard and Valai obviously have the Badger connection they actually never overlapped. Valai came to Wisconsin as a player a year after Leonhard graduated and went to the NFL. Yet, the roots are deep for Leonhard as he continues to look at former Badgers for his staff.