Peeking Ahead to Buffalo Bills' Training Camp Battles: Wide Receiver
One of the first things NFL coaches and executives tell rookies is to disregard the numbers. No matter how many qualified bodies may be ahead of them on the offseason depth chart, the advice is always to keep their heads down, preferably buried in the playbook.
Yet with the amount of talent the Bills have compiled at wide receiver, the quantity of the quality cannot be ignored.
Beyond Stefon Diggs, who just signed a rich contract extension, there's ascending third-year star Gabriel Davis, who produced career highs in receptions (eight), yards (201) and touchdowns (four) in the Bills' playoff loss at Kansas City last January, and accomplished newcomer Jamison Crowder, just to name a few.
Thus begins our second in a series previewing the most compelling roster battles of training camp
The principal players:
- Stefon Diggs
- Gabriel Davis
- Jamison Crowder
- Isaiah McKenzie
- Jake Kumerow
- Marquez Stevenson
- Isaiah Hodgins
- Tanner Gentry
- Khalil Shakir
- Neil Pau'u
- Malik Williams
The Bills will keep six at most on the active roster, with four locks in Diggs, Davis, Crowder and McKenzie to go with a highly probable rookie in Shakir.
It means that the rest likely will be battling for one roster spot, providing everyone stays healthy and the Bills make no more moves to bolster this deep position.
The real battle, however, will be to see how the football is distributed beyond Diggs, who is destined to remain quarterback Josh Allen's favorite target until death do them part.
Davis sure looked poised by the end of last season to step into the No. 2 outside role vacated by Emmanuel Sanders, who wasn't re-signed after his contract expired.
General manager Brandon Beane certainly was impressed.
"You know, Gabriel is a stud and I mean that in [every] sense," Beane said. "His habits, you know, he's serious about football. Y'all remember when we turned the pick in [in the 2020 NFL Draft] and the guy's out there working out. He's just so driven. And that's not fake. Some people will do that for fake. That's him.
"He just had a heck of a game to finish our season and put him on the map, and he's had two good [training] camps. He was probably overlooked in this offense a little bit [the first two seasons], but when his number's called — go back to that Colts game a year ago in the playoffs. We wouldn't have won that game if we don't have Gabe Davis. ... And then obviously the plays he made down the stretch last year and then in the Chiefs game."
Beane is most impressed by how Davis always seems ready to play.
"He's got that look, like the eye of the tiger," Beane said. "I'll go to war with Gabe Davis any day of the week."
The slot position will carry the most intrigue. McKenzie, Crowder and Shakir should provide an exciting competition for the role the departed Cole Beasley played almost exclusively for the previous three seasons.
McKenzie's contract was up at the end of 2021, but then he signed a new two-year deal. That was before Beane decided not to take any chances and add the accomplished Crowder in free agency and then draft Shakir, who is widely considered to be one of the top value picks of the entire NFL Draft after dropping into the fifth round.
NFL Network's Mike Giardi said "many NFL executives were stunned he ended up in the fifth round."
Giardi also called him a "Swiss army knife" for his ability to line up in the backfield as well as the outside.
"I think he'll be a weapon for the Bills sooner rather than later," Giardi added.
Let the action begin.
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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
