Buffalo Bills 53-man roster prediction: Wide receivers

Who will the Buffalo Bills take into 2019 as their wide receivers, and how many will there be on the roster?

After an off-season highlighted by a bevy of wide receiver additions, the Buffalo Bills’ pass-catching unit appears to be the most talented and deep it’s been in some time. The culmination of veteran signings, continuous development, and priority free agent additions is a predicted receiver room as shown below.

(1) John Brown (2) Zay Jones (3) Cole Beasley (4) Robert Foster (5) Andre Roberts

The prime underlying factors of the group is the abundance of speed, agility, and quickness. That’s kicked off via the addition of John Brown, a five-year veteran formerly of the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens.

With a 4.34 second 40-time in the books, Brown’s selling point is his speed. And he knows how to work with it. Though undersized (5-foot-11) and not in possession of a large catch radius, Brown is a big-armed quarterback’s best friend. His legs can take the top off the defense, while his developed vertical route-stems can help blow by corners — and his YAC can abilities tread out yards in chunks.

Brown has found his most success in his career playing with deep-ball throwers, particularly Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco. In two full seasons playing with Palmer, he caught 103 passes for 1,699 yards and 12 touchdowns. With Flacco, for nine games in 2018, he caught 34 balls for 601 yards on an average of 17.7 yards per catch. The Bills gave him a three-year, $27 million contract to continue that production with Josh Allen — a Wyoming product with a booming arm.

Zay Jones is one of two receivers predicted to return in 2019 and expectations are high. Coming into his third year in the NFL, many are estimating for Jones to settle into the top-option role, as he was drafted to do in 2017 coming out of Eastern Carolina.

Jones led the Bills in receiving yards and touchdowns in 2018 with 628 and seven, respectively. He boasts an NFL-ready 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame that is only getting bigger, and showed signs of development in year two of his pro-ball career. Though Jones’ vertical route-running is a concern, he’s a menace working from the slot — as his size is a problem — and running horizontally.

Jones does his best work in short-yardage situations, and particularly in the red zone. According to Warren Sharp’s 2019 Football Preview, Jones was the Bills’ most targeted receiver when the goal got close. He received a team-high 14 red zone targets, including ten from the 11-20-yard range. He caught seven of those passes and converted them into four touchdowns.

Though Jones caught an average of 54.9% of his targets, his catch radius, according to PlayerProfiler.com, is in the 93rd-percentile. To be a more efficient receiver, Jones must learn to create separation consistently and speed up his release. If he does so, the sky is the limit.

Free-agent addition Cole Beasley will fill out the slot role for the Bills. For a team long-searching for an answer at the now-necessary position, acquiring Beasley — one of the better slot receivers in the NFL — on a four-year, $29 million contract is a lauded transaction.

Once a seven-year veteran for the Dallas Cowboys, Beasley was Tony Romo and Dak Prescott‘s go-to target on quick-hits and third-downs. The reasoning is simple: Beasley is an extremely efficient short-yardage route-runner that knows how to use options based on leverage reads and has reliable hands. Despite being a 5-foot-8 receiver and weighing 180-pounds soaking wet, Beasley tallied 319 catches (70.9% catch rate) for 3,217 yards and 23 touchdowns as a Cowboy.

Beasley should provide Allen with an always open, and sure-handed target out of the slot. In 2018, he possessed a true catch rate of 92.9% and an average target separation of 1.83 yards — per PlayerProfiler.com — which finished fifth and seventh in the NFL, respectively.  For good measure, he also added 206 yards after the catch.

After an explosive rookie season in the wake of being undrafted, Robert Foster has people excited in Buffalo. And for good reason. Despite playing just 13 games in 2018, and starting three, Foster finished second on the Bills in receiving yards with 571 yards and added three scores.  He tallied 90+ yards four times between weeks 11-15.

According to PlayerProfiler.com, no NFL receiver finished above Foster in yards per reception (20), target quality rating (9.4), and average target distance (20.9). Only one fell ahead of him in yards per target (12.3) and four in yards per pass route (2.94). What you can get from all that is the 6-foot-2 Foster is one of the league’s best deep-ball receivers, despite his limited experience.

Per Sharp Football Stats, Foster finished as the Bills’ best receiver in terms of passer rating when targeted with 114. His deep right rating of 149 is nearly perfect. In the slot, he found a 60% success rate on an average of 15.8 yards per target, according to Warren Sharp’s 2019 Football Preview. It’s vital that the Bills continue to use him in that same area and as a field-stretcher.

Though Foster was mightily impressive as an undrafted rookie, Jones earns the nod to start week one on the basis of experience. But if the Bills favor speed and a lot of it, Foster and Brown would be the obvious starting combo with Beasley taking the scraps inside given their noted field-stretching abilities.

Last on the depth chart is Andre Roberts, who figures to have a minimal role on offense. The Bills inked the nine-year veteran to a two-year, $4.6 million contract due to his proficiency as a returner. In 2018, he made the first-team All-Pro and Pro-Bowl in the same area.

Playing for the New York Jets in 2018, Roberts tallied 1,124 yards and a touchdown on 40 kick returns. On punts, he caught 23 and netted 324 yards and a score. He hasn’t recorded 188+ receiving yards in a season since 2014, and that likely won’t change in 2019.

The result of the five receivers on the roster is that of a markedly improved pass-catching unit. The emphasis on speed on the roster is prevalent with Brown and Foster, while Jones and Beasley are the possession options. Allen’s arm should benefit greatly from a roster devoid of unreliable options Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes.