Bills lacking critical piece all 4 AFC/NFC championship teams boast

Since the 2025 campaign began, much of the talk surrounding the Buffalo Bills centered on the team’s lack of adequate talent at the wide receiver position.

Buffalo finished the regular season without a pass catcher reaching 720 yards receiving, an embarrassment for a team quarterbacked by one of the best signal callers in football, Josh Allen.

And if Sunday’s NFL conference championship action has proven anything, it’s that a true, No. 1 wide receiver can help a team reach great levels of success. Regardless of what President of Football Operations/General Manager Brandon Beane claimed at the outset of the season.

Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman — Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman checks in with wide receiver Khalil Shakir on the play while they line up during first half action at Empower FIeld at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Jan. 17, 2026. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Something in common

When you look at the four teams involved in the AFC and NFC Championship games, they all have one thing in common — a true, bona fide target at the WR position, all of them finishing the year as one of 20 WRs in the league with over 1,000 yards receiving.

The Seahawks are equipped with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the NFL with 1,793 yards receiving. The Rams have Puka Nacua, who totaled a league-high 129 receptions. And the Patriots and Broncos have Stefon Diggs and Courtland Sutton, who, while not among the league leaders, each helped their respective teams’ offense sustain production in the passing game.

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On the Bills’ side

When you look at Buffalo’s complement of WR weapons, they simply have nothing close to the aforementioned names.

Khalil Shakir is a nice piece, but of his 719 yards receiving during the regular season, 541 of them came after the catch. He is nowhere near a downfield target.

Beyond Shakir, second-year pro Keon Coleman has been a massive disappointment since the Bills drafted him in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft. And another player who was expected to give the team a boost this season, Joshua Palmer, was uninspiring in his first season with the team, to say the least.

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Joshua Palmer (5) runs the ball against Baltimore Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins (2) during the fourth quarter at Highmark Stadium. | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Looking ahead, there does not appear to be much hope for this unit, barring a significant offseason acquisition or savvy move to land a WR in the draft, which Beane has been allergic to since he took over as GM. Coleman is the highest-drafted WR under the Bills’ president of football ops./GM, who has otherwise never spent higher than a fourth-round pick (Gabe Davis) to select a player at the position.

At some point, likely over the next several months, Beane is going to have to bite the bullet and go against his internal instinct, as the Bills are in desperate need of something every other contender seems to have — a WR1. If they go another season without one, it's likely going to mean another year wasted with Allen as the team's quarterback.

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