Did we do enough at wide receiver?

[oldmanfan]

I've seen some folks talk about how we were should have doubled up on WR in the draft, got another guy say somewhere in rounds 3-7.  But we have two guys on the roster right now that fit that description, Hamler and Shorter.  Hamler of course has to get over his injury history, and Shorter never really got going last year.  So we kind of already have done what some wanted done yesterday.

[LabattBlue]

Pissing away a 7th round pick on this guy who has never played football instead of the longest of long shots at WR is a waste of a pick. 

[CincyBillsFan]

14 hours ago, Meatloaf63 said:

With all the offseason moves, and adding just Coleman in the draft, did we do enough or will Beane look to trade or add a free agent after Trey’s money frees up?  

I for one can’t believe we are finished, how about you?

I think we did enough for the offense that Brady intends to run in Buffalo.  And I agree with you that we are likely to sign another vet WR if the price is right.

 

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

14 hours ago, Clyde Smith said:

I'm rooting for Hamler. Speedster, I wanted him his draft year.

Me too I remember watching a Penn State game with my cousin from Philadelphia and could not believe how good that kid was. Hopefully he can regain that form

[MarlinTheMagician]

14 hours ago, JoshAllin said:

Shakir replaces Diggs

Coleman replaces Gabe

Samuel replaces Shakir Yr1

Then you have Kincaid and Knox

Backups Hollins, Isabella

 

I agree.  People forget Diggs gave us little the last 8 games.  I think 2024 Shakir will be better than 2024 Diggs.  Why is Diggs on a one year deal with the Texans?  Because his arrow is clearly pointing down.  Shakir's is up.  We shall see.

 

It is almost impossible for Coleman to give us less than Gabe Davis did over the last eight games.  

 

I love this board, but it is just sooo negative.  I fought with so many posters about "we drafted the wrong Josh."  And Terrell Bernard - I admit I had my doubts, I really wanted Jack Campbell and the Lions took him early.  But even for him I posted "let's let the young man play before we judge him."  

 

Same here.  I think we will be better at WR even if we add nothing.  Time will tell.

[Nextmanup]

15 hours ago, Virgil said:

No

This is the answer!  But the season doesn't start tomorrow.

Still time to amaze us, Beane.  But his bag of tricks is getting smaller as time goes on.

 

 

[Bill51390]

I think the key to our WR group is Kincaid becoming that dominant TE. If that happens, this offense will be fine. Also, we have an elite QB. Having an elite QB can elevate the play of our receivers. I’m not saying we are the Chiefs, but before the start of the 2023 season, everyone was writing off the Chiefs because of their WR room, including their fans. 
 

We are about to see a new style of offense for this team. Im personally excited, it’s not like the previous got us to a Super Bowl. 

[Mat68]

Coleman, Samuel, Shakir are the starters.  Hollins, Shorter and Shavers compete for the outside spots.  Isabella, Hamler and Cepheus compete for the inside spots.  I could see a move in the summer for another if no one steps up.   Not a terrible room when adding in Kincaid and Knox at Te and Cook out of the backfield.  

[BuffaloBillyG]

I think I see what Beane is trying to do with WRs. A great ability to have is unpredictability. It's good to have the ability to spread the ball around, find the mismatches and exploit them. 

 

However, I'm kind of tired of the constant questions at WR. Last year was "hoping" Sheffield and Harty were more than they had ever been. They weren't. Or "hoping" John Brown or Cole Beasley could be brought back mid season and regain their past play. They didn't. "Hoping" Gabe Davis could take the step to be a consistent #2 WR and possibly one day a #1. He couldn't. So on and so forth.

 

I get it, not every spot can be filled with an NFL All-Pro. Role players are useful. Just once though I would love to have more answers than questions at WR. This year it's "How will Coleman fit?" It's "Man, maybe Shavers or Short can step up". "Can Andy Isabella have a late age growth spurt and make it to 5'5" tall?" "Can KJ Hamler (who I do think at least has some potential skill) stop doing Marquise Goodwin impressions?"

 

Just one year can we not have Josh Allen throwing to the Island of the Misfit Toys?

[Success]

We always complained we didn't have a running game - w/ Davis & Cook, it could be our best year at that position in a long time.

 

We have 2 really good TE's - one of whom could be near the top in the league in the upcoming years.  

 

Our O-line is young & deep.

 

Our WR corps is meh right now until they prove themselves - but there are loads of ways to score points in this offense without top-end WR talent.

 

[Dr. Who]

16 minutes ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

I think I see what Beane is trying to do with WRs. A great ability to have is unpredictability. It's good to have the ability to spread the ball around, find the mismatches and exploit them. 

 

However, I'm kind of tired of the constant questions at WR. Last year was "hoping" Sheffield and Harty were more than they had ever been. They weren't. Or "hoping" John Brown or Cole Beasley could be brought back mid season and regain their past play. They didn't. "Hoping" Gabe Davis could take the step to be a consistent #2 WR and possibly one day a #1. He couldn't. So on and so forth.

 

I get it, not every spot can be filled with an NFL All-Pro. Role players are useful. Just once though I would love to have more answers than questions at WR. This year it's "How will Coleman fit?" It's "Man, maybe Shavers or Short can step up". "Can Andy Isabella have a late age growth spurt and make it to 5'5" tall?" "Can KJ Hamler (who I do think at least has some potential skill) stop doing Marquise Goodwin impressions?"

 

Just one year can we not have Josh Allen throwing to the Island of the Misfit Toys?

[chris heff]

21 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Cmon man. Shakir replaces Diggs??? Diggs had the four best WR years in Bills history.  There is nothing to suggest Shakir even comes close to that.

For the last two seasons both Diggs and Davis were invisible for long stretches. Maybe you can blame some of that on Dorsey, but not all. By the second half of last season two top receivers were Shakir and Kincaid. Shakir had 39 receptions for 611 yards, Diggs had 107 receptions for 1,183 yards. Shakir caught 39 out of 45 targets, catch percentage was 86.7% highest in the league and yes I went to Wikipedia, that’s what it’s for. Throw the ball to Shakir over 100 times and see how he does.

[klos63]

I've been wondering why we aren't asking these questions about the Oline.  Is anyone really feeling good about our new LG and Center?  If they don't play well, doesn't matter much about our WR room.

[Dr. Who]

1 minute ago, klos63 said:

I've been wondering why we aren't asking these questions about the Oline.  Is anyone really feeling good about our new LG and Center?  If they don't play well, doesn't matter much about our WR room.

Van Pran will be the Center. That's my belief, folks can think that is overly optimistic. McGovern will stay at LG.

[Blackbeard]

This year is setting up to really allow Josh to show himself as MVP. 

 

 

[buffblue]

I will say, at least this isn't our WR group. 

 

https://www.buffalobills.com/photos/meet-the-bills-wide-receivers-20629773#9698c432-3a04-477b-94d1-10d46f303c8e

 

[Beck Water]

23 hours ago, Meatloaf63 said:

With all the offseason moves, and adding just Coleman in the draft, did we do enough or will Beane look to trade or add a free agent after Trey’s money frees up?  

I for one can’t believe we are finished, how about you?

 

No, I don't think we did enough

 

As for whether we're finished....I didn't think we did enough at MLB last season.  As it turned out, it was the best of times (Beane was correct that the answer was on our roster, and Terrel Bernard really stepped up) and it was the worst of times (once we lost Milano and schemed up a thing where Dodson and Poyer platooned, we had no legit backup for Bernard)

 

I think the best case scenario is that we're in a similar situation - the best of times would be that Coleman proves capable of starting and contributing on at least a Gabe Davis level, and that Samuel and Shakir take turns platooning at the other outside WR position while we run a lot of 1,1 and 1,2 sets where we only have 2 WR on the field anyway.

 

The worst case scenario though, is what's our plan if one of those guys gets hurt.

Edited April 28 by Beck Water

[Beck Water]

5 hours ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

I think I see what Beane is trying to do with WRs. A great ability to have is unpredictability. It's good to have the ability to spread the ball around, find the mismatches and exploit them. 

 

However, I'm kind of tired of the constant questions at WR. Last year was "hoping" Sheffield and Harty were more than they had ever been. They weren't. Or "hoping" John Brown or Cole Beasley could be brought back mid season and regain their past play. They didn't. "Hoping" Gabe Davis could take the step to be a consistent #2 WR and possibly one day a #1. He couldn't. So on and so forth.

 

I get it, not every spot can be filled with an NFL All-Pro. Role players are useful. Just once though I would love to have more answers than questions at WR. This year it's "How will Coleman fit?" It's "Man, maybe Shavers or Short can step up". "Can Andy Isabella have a late age growth spurt and make it to 5'5" tall?" "Can KJ Hamler (who I do think at least has some potential skill) stop doing Marquise Goodwin impressions?"

 

Just one year can we not have Josh Allen throwing to the Island of the Misfit Toys?

 

To be fair, we weren't exactly hoping that Sherfield and Harty were more than they ever had been.  

 

At least, I would have been happy if Sherfield could have repeated his 30 catch, 417 yd performance from 2022 with Miami, and if Harty had repeated his 30 catch, 570 yd performance from his previous healthy season in 2021.

 

But these are small points.  Overall, the bottom line is I was hoping we could bring our WR talent back to 2022 levels and instead it's looking 2019-like, which was Not Good Enough.

[BuffaloBillyG]

14 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

To be fair, we weren't exactly hoping that Sherfield and Harty were more than they ever had been.  

 

At least, I would have been happy if Sherfield could have repeated his 30 catch, 417 yd performance from 2022 with Miami, and if Harty had repeated his 30 catch, 570 yd performance from his previous healthy season in 2021.

 

But these are small points.  Overall, the bottom line is I was hoping we could bring our WR talent back to 2022 levels and instead it's looking 2019-like, which was Not Good Enough.

I can say this. I know that's what you were hoping for out of Sherfield and Harty. That's because you're pretty level headed and realistic. I can't say the same for everyone and some of the debates I had here people had them ready to replicate Brown/Beasley numbers or better which was a little over the top on my assessment. 

[sven233]

The quick answer is NO and I have a feeling we will be entering the 2025 draft still in search for our WR1.  Unless there is a trade at some point, which Beane has already says is not on the horizon for now, it's going to be tough out there at times.  Kincaid will have to carry this team much like Kelce carries the Chiefs for us to be successful consistently this season..