With the final stretch of the regular season ahead, the Buffalo Bills need all hands on deck to secure a spot in the postseason and make good on another attempt at a Super Bowl appearance. Despite all of Josh Allen’s talents at quarterback, the passing game is lacking reliable targets, which adds an extra squeeze to the pressure Buffalo is facing.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Allen will be getting one of his receivers back from the injury list as soon as he and the team would like. Head coach Sean McDermott relayed in his Wednesday press conference that Joshua Palmer didn’t practice on Wednesday, signalling his unavailability for a critical meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday.
“He’s not in the best place in terms of his body and injury,” McDermott said of Palmer, who remains unavailable due to an ankle injury. Palmer's practice participation has been shaky since playing against Houston, logging limited practices twice last week but not suiting up last Thursday. Beginning this week without participating in practice is not the news Bills fans needed to see, especially with the struggles the receiving room is experiencing late in the season.
Sean McDermott signals Josh Palmer remains a major uncertainty for the Buffalo Bills’ offense
Palmer was signed to a three-year, $36 million contract this offseason after four solid seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers. Unfortunately, injuries have played a factor in his entire NFL career, only finishing a full season in his rookie campaign. Otherwise, Palmer has played in just 66 of 80 possible games, starting in just 34 of them.
The hope, of course, was that Palmer would step into the Bills' offense and begin to flourish alongside Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir. That hasn’t been the case, as even when Palmer has been available this season, he's caught just 18 passes on 29 targets for 272 yards.
Now, Bills fans are starting to see an all-too-familiar pattern with their wide receiver signings in free agency. Last season, it was much the same story with Curtis Samuels, who signed a three-year, $24 million contract in 2024. He caught just 31 passes for 253 yards and a score last year and has just seven catches for 81 yards and a touchdown this season.
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Palmer’s course is mirroring Samuels’ much too closely for Bills fans’ liking. With or without him on the field, Buffalo has been short-changed in the expected value he’d bring to the team. At this point, it’s becoming clear that signing him in free agency was one of the franchise’s worst moves of the offseason. If that continues to hold true, the team will be looking for more receiver help next spring.
Hopefully, Palmer can get back on the field at some point during the race to the postseason and flip the narrative on his 2025 campaign. The Bills need all the help from their pass-catchers that they can get when Allen is put in crunch-time situations.