5 best wide receivers for the Buffalo Bills to select in the 2022 NFL Draft

Buffalo Bills’ Wide Receiver Prospect No. 1: Treylon Burks, Arkansas

After 12 games last season at Arkansas, Treylon Burks had some analysts thinking he was one of the top receivers in the draft. Now, with the draft only weeks away, the hype around Burks’ name has dropped, and so has his draft stock.

Now, that’s not saying he’s a bad player; there are just teams that have a draft crush named something other than Treylon Burks. With the draft having such a large narrative around it being such a deep receiver draft, it’s making people think that 32 receivers will be taken in the first round.

That’s not the case, but Treylon Burks being available at Pick No. 25 isn’t unlikely.

In terms of what Burks brings to the field, he’s an impressive athlete.

At the NFL Combine, Treylon Burks lost a lot of hype around his name due to his measurements, however.

Treylon Burks NFL Combine Measurements

• 40-yard dash: 4.55 sec
• Vertical Jump: 33″
• Broad Jump: 122″
• 3-Cone Drill: 7.28 sec

The main takeaway that people online were giving was that Burks’ 4.55 40-yard dash was terrible.

Come to find out, a mid-4.5 40-yard dash time doesn’t equate to irrelevance in the NFL. There are a handful of NFL receivers, both in the modern-day and in the past, who had a 40-yard dash time that was either worse or similar; and their careers have all turned out just fine.

Notable “slow” 40-yard dash times

• Jerry Rice: 4.78 sec
• Michael Irvin: 4.52 sec
• Cooper Kupp: 4.62 sec
• Mike Evans: 4.53 sec
• Deandre Hopkins: 4.57 sec
• Davante Adams: 4.56 sec

And the list could go on and on.

Had the teams that drafted these receivers paid too much attention to the 40-yard dash, they wouldn’t have had the success that they’ve had. There are levels to an athlete’s potential, and the NFL Combine isn’t necessarily the place that shows it in its entirety.

NFL Combine measurements aren’t that indicative of a player, so the game film is where people should go if they want to know the most about a player. There’s a difference between working out in gym clothes with no opponents and playing in a game at one of the highest levels. Plenty of times during a broadcast of games, the phrase “game speed” comes out.

The NFL Combine doesn’t test game speed, nor does it test real-game mechanics too much. Now, the cone drills and more of the versatility drills are, but the bench press, 40-yard dash, high jump, etc., don’t give a true identity to the player the way game film does. And Treylon Burks has impressive game film.

So, if Treylon Burks is available at Pick No. 25 for the Buffalo Bills, it’d be a good selection for them to take him. The way he’d compliment Stefon Diggs, and the addition of yet another weapon to Josh Allen’s arsenal would be fun to watch for Bills fans.

Now, with one receiver out of the way, who’s next?