The Buffalo Bills began the 2024 NFL season with almost an entirely new group of wide receivers, with Khalil Shakir the only holdover from 2023. Buffalo has further mixed up its group with trades and draft additions.
Let’s take a look at the current state of the Bills’ wide receiver group.
Amari Cooper
The 10th-year veteran arrived from the Cleveland Browns via a midseason trade. A five-time Pro Bowler who recorded a career-high 1,250 receiving yards last season, Amari Cooper was one of the biggest names moved at this year’s trade deadline.
Cooper began his Bills tenure with a bang. In Week 7 vs. the Tennessee Titans, he caught four passes for 66 yards and a touchdown in very limited work.
AMARI COOPER. TOUCHDOWN BILLS.
📺: #TENvsBUF on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/y1lE7R509g— NFL (@NFL) October 20, 2024
However, Cooper’s second game was much quieter, as he recorded a single catch for three yards vs. the Seattle Seahawks. Along the way, he picked up a wrist injury that kept him out of two straight games.
Cooper’s arrival was supposed to fill the versatile No. 1 receiver role that Stefon Diggs left vacant when he was traded to the Houston Texans this offseason. There’s still time for Cooper to fulfill that promise, but the injury has stalled out his connection with Josh Allen ahead of a potential playoff run.
Khalil Shakir
The lone holdover from 2023 among Buffalo’s wide receivers, Shakir has been Allen’s top target in 2024.
Shakir leads the Bills in receptions and receiving yards entering Week 11 while catching an absurd 88.9% of his targets. That’s the highest catch rate of any wide receiver this season.
The flip side is that Shakir is averaging a career-low 11.0 yards per reception after averaging 15.8 over his first two seasons combined. Nevertheless, he’s been a dependable target vacuum for an offense that hasn’t had many familiar faces outside of himself and Dalton Kincaid.
Keon Coleman
The 33rd overall pick in April’s draft, the Bills traded up for rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman. Though Coleman physically profiles as a true X-receiver at 6’4″ and 215 pounds, the Florida State product has proven to be more versatile than that.
Coleman is averaging 19.0 yards per reception but also leads all Buffalo wideouts with an average of 8.7 yards after the catch. He is more than a jump-ball artist in the red zone (though he possesses that ability, too), and his YAC ability has led to the fourth-highest yards-per-reception figure for any NFL wide receiver entering Week 11.
KEON. COLEMAN.
📺: @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/lQWF6PXCRu
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 8, 2024
Unfortunately, Coleman has missed the last two games entering Buffalo’s Week 12 bye with a wrist injury. Sean McDermott noted that the injury “could be more than just a week,” but hopefully the bye allows Coleman to return to the field in Week 13.
Mack Hollins
A seven-year journeyman, Mack Hollins beat out the likes of Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Chase Claypool in training camp to earn a meaningful role in Buffalo’s offense. While Cooper’s arrival will cut into Hollins’ snaps once everyone is healthy, he’s played a valuable role in helping the Bills survive the first half of the season.
Hollins’ three receiving touchdowns are tied with Coleman for the team lead entering Week 11. His best season came two years ago with the Las Vegas Raiders, when he recorded 57 catches for 690 yards and four scores.
At 6’4″ and 221 pounds, Hollins has a similar profile to Coleman but is much more of a traditional X-receiver. He’s run a team-high 242 routes entering Week 11, proving to be an important under-the-radar signing.
Curtis Samuel
A jack-of-all-trades, Curtis Samuel is an eighth-year pro who is playing his first season in Buffalo. Samuel played four seasons with the Carolina Panthers and three seasons with the Washington Commanders prior to being one of the Bills’ many low-cost veteran receiver signings this offseason.
Samuel is Buffalo’s most versatile wide receiver from an alignment standpoint. Entering Week 11, he’s lined up out wide on 49% of his snaps, in the slot 46% of the time, and in the backfield on the other 5% of his snaps.
Jalen Virgil
The most inexperienced WR on the team is Jalen Virgil. An undrafted player out of Appalachian State in 2022, Virgil spent two years with the Denver Broncos before being waived at the end of the preseason.
Buffalo subsequently signed him to its practice squad, promoting Virgil to the active roster in Week 8. He’s appeared in three games for special-teams duty and doesn’t have a catch over 18 total offensive snaps entering Week 11.
Virgil has two catches in his career, though one of them was a 66-yard touchdown from Russell Wilson in 2022.