Dion Dawkins and Shaq Lawson's lockers are one apart with the Bills, but their relationship began in 2012 during one tough year at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia.

"It's hell. It's kind of like jail, but you're in school, military, playing football," Lawson said.

"I didn't know nothing about it. Nothing of it, for real. I just thought I'm going away to play ball," Dawkins said. "Once I got there it was the military of the military, it was the strictest of the strictest, and the slums of the slums and it was a rough time, but only the strong survive."

As they powered through, marching in pressed and shined uniforms, football was Dawkins and Lawson's best course of survival.

"He actually started playing on defense. He was a defensive guy at first," Lawson said.

"A defensive tackle," Dawkins said. "So we were all in the same room and then they needed help and I was a big body and they slid me over and ever since then, now I'm here with Shaq on the opposite side of the ball."

Those two helped Hargrave go 7-3 that season. They then parted ways, with Lawson off to Clemson and Dawkins to Temple.

"I don't think that I needed it, but because it happened, I'm not mad," Dawkins said. "It definitely helped. It made college a lot easier. I was always on time, always where I had to be, following a schedule, this and that, doing everything right like going to my lifting group with my shirt tucked in and my shoes just right. Just the little things. Hargrave definitely did that for me."

"I needed it though and I'm going to tell you why: I was just a class clown. Big guy, cracking jokes," Lawson said. "I really needed it though because it disciplined me, had me ready for the next level. Made college way easier. I wouldn't complain about getting up for 5 am workouts as a freshman. I've been doing that. It made my life more easier, so I'm glad I took that route. I'd never take that back again."

Lawson's route eventually made him a first round pick of the Bills in 2016. A year later, Dawkins reunited with him as a second round selection.

"When I see his name come up on the screen say Buffalo Bills, I say 'Hey, that's my dawg. We played together at Hargrave!' Lawson said. "It's going to be nice. Someone you played with at Hargrave. Everybody doesn't have the opportunity at Hargrave to either make it to college or play in the NFL, so that made it special situations because two guys that really busted their butt, went through the struggle — it made it kind of see where we come from and came through to get to this level."

And even if the setting's different, Lawson and Dawkins still pull from their Hargrave days.

"Constantly reminding each other what it took to get here and don't ever lose sight of it," Dawkins said. "The NFL has its ups and downs and as players we sometimes fall into the comfort zone. So I'm just good so I can chill and coast and get by, but Come on, Shaq, it's time to go. Dion, let's pick it up a little more and just little things. Especially in one-on-ones because I barely go up against Shaq because Shaq's on the opposite side, but whenever he's going he critiques me and I do the same for him, whether it's the small things because that's what pulls us through."

Pulling through from hell and back.