Oct. 14, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Buffalo Bills wide receiver (13) Stevie Johnson stretches on the sidelines in the second half against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Bills defeated the Cardinals 19-16 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The Buffalo Bills have had issues the past couple of year trying to find an opposite wide receiver to go with their number 1. This year, the Bills will be looking, like last year, for a complement to Stevie Johnson. Who will it be?
The Buffalo Bills brought in Robert Woods, and Marquise Goodwin through the draft and Da’Rick Rogers as an undrafted free agent. With TJ Graham and Brad Smith also competing for spots as well as others, who will the Bills find to compete with Johnson.
Nathaniel Hackett is not concerned with finding a number two receiver. Knowing the past history of the Bills and number 2 receivers, I would be concerned as well as the injury factor that seems to hit. This is what Hackett has to say on the topic.
"“I think when you look at the wide receivers it’s not just the wideouts, it’s a competition for everybody on the team,” Hackett said, via the team’s website. “It’s who are the best five skill players that we have? It’s my job to take those five best players and put those guys out there a whole bunch and be very multiple with that. If it’s a lot of wide receivers then you might have a lot of wide receivers. If it’s more tight ends, more running backs, whichever one dominates and does a better job out on the field that’s who we want out there. So I think it comes down to who excels in training camp. So it could be a lot of wideouts. It could be more tight ends, more fullbacks, more halfbacks. We just want the best players out there so I think that will always kind of fluctuate.”"
This is interesting as I have never thought about it this way. It may be possible that the Bills carry only 4 or 5 wide receivers and an extra back or tight end to make up the rest of the receiving core. It would bring a different dynamic to the team and move the team from a conventional spread offense to more of a big offense when carrying more TEs on the roster and coming out with a 2 TE set most of the time. This would also play into the run game and blocking schemes.
Training camp is just around the corner, less than 10 days away. Start your engines.