Christian Benford pegs Buffalo Bills teammate as league's most underrated WR

There hasn’t been much to write home about when it comes to the Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver corps this season.

Throughout an underwhelming 2025 campaign from the critical position group, one of the few bright spots has been the slight emergence of a former undrafted free agent who has battled his way into the Bills’ rotation on the outside offensively.

Tyrell Shavers has been lauded by his teammates throughout the year for his hard work and toughness, most recently by Christian Benford.

Showering with praise

During an appearance on This is Football, the Bills cornerback described Shavers as the most underrated player in the NFL.

“What goes on in the dark is starting to come to light,” said Benford. “He is a well-rounded receiver. He is showing right now, he’s blocking. And beforehand, when he wasn’t getting all of those Sunday reps, he’s shown he is a wide receiver who can run routes, do those spectacular catches. Can do those one-on-one balls, so I would say he is underrated for sure.”

Shavers began the season as a three-phase special teams player, but due to injuries, disciplinary issues and underperformance at the WR position, Shavers has been used on offense increasingly over the past several weeks.

“He gives a lot of DBs some work,” added Benford. “And once he get comfortable and give him that space to play his best ball, he’s a good player.”

MORE: Did Bills' WR Tyrell Shavers spectacular TD catch seal his spot on roster?

I asked Bills hero Christian Benford who the most underrated wide receiver in the entire league is.

He said his teammate, Tyrell Shavers.

An explanation of why @rell4six made the leap on a great This Is Football with Christian today. pic.twitter.com/6LtOhjPNYq
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) December 10, 2025

Hot and cold

Through the first 13 games of the season, Shavers has played 54% of the team’s special teams snaps and 38% of the offensive snaps, which are both significant increases from a season ago when he played 16% of the snaps on offense and 13% of the special teams snaps.

In his first game as a key piece of the team’s WR corps, which came as a result of Keon Coleman’s benching against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he turned in a transformative effort consisting of four receptions for 90 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown reception. But since then, he has had just one reception for 16 yards, which came on a first-down play midway through the fourth quarter of Buffalo’s Week 15 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Looking ahead

Moving forward, Shavers’ role will remain significant both offensively and on special teams, although with the way the Bills’ offense has utilized its receivers this season, don’t expect him to reshape the position down the stretch. That being said, at the very least, he has a chance to provide a productive performance as he showed in Week 11 against Tampa Bay.

And the continued diligence matched with his budding pass-catching ability, highlighted by Benford's comments, are significant reasons Shavers has put himself in a position to contribute throughout his third NFL season.

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