It’s starting to feel like déjà vu for the Buffalo Bills. Every offseason, their biggest need is finding more playmakers for Josh Allen. And every year, it seems like the front office doesn’t do quite enough to find reliable options in the passing game.
It’s not like the front office hasn’t tried. They’ve signed players like Elijah Moore, Joshua Palmer, Curtis Samuel, etc. They selected Keon Coleman at the top of Round 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft. And yet, nothing has really panned out in a big way.
Buffalo’s big addition this offseason was D.J. Moore, who is coming off one of the worst years of his career. There is no doubt that he’ll be an upgrade over what Buffalo had last year, but the question is if it’s enough to truly help get this team over the top. The national perspective is that Buffalo hasn’t done close to enough in their wide receiver room.
Bills' skill players ranked among worst in NFL
The good news for Buffalo is that they aren’t completely barren of options on offense around Josh Allen. James Cook has been one of the league’s most productive running backs over the last three seasons, and he led the NFL in rushing yards (1,621) in 2025. It’s just that everywhere else is a major question mark.
In a recent article by Bill Barnwell of ESPN, he ranked every team’s RB-WR-TE grouping heading into the 2026 season. And unfortunately for the Bills, they finished fourth-worst in the NFL despite having one of the league’s best running backs.
Barnwell’s biggest criticism was the lack of a go-to wide receiver, which has been the case for Buffalo since they moved on from Stefon Diggs. But here is a snippet and summary of what he thinks about the weapons surrounding Allen going into the season:
"For all the Bills are spending at receiver, the same question still lingers: If Allen needs to throw for a first down to win a game, who should he trust to get open? Every team ranked above the Bills has at least one receiver that fans would bring up as an obvious answer for their quarterback. The Bills still, somehow, do not."
The Bills are hopeful that the combination of Cook, along with all of their tight ends, will take some of the pressure off their wide receiver corps. The addition of Moore does give them at least one more viable receiver to pair with Khalil Shakir. But Barnwell isn’t wrong. There isn’t a reliable target in the passing game that Josh Allen can trust with the game on the line.
At this point, it’s hard to see Moore or Shakir turning into that player. That doesn’t mean they can’t be highly effective, but neither profiles as the No. 1 option in the passing game. And at this stage of the offseason, there isn’t a go-to receiver available on the market.
The hope is that Dalton Kincaid, who is finally healthy and heading into Year 4, could turn into that weapon. There have been plenty of successful teams whose top option in the passing game was the tight end, and Kincaid has the talent to be that type of difference-maker, as we saw in the playoff game against Denver.
But make no mistake about it; Brandon Beane and the front office have not done a good enough job of putting talented players around their superstar quarterback. Luckily for them, they have the best player in the NFL under center, and he might be able to overcome a lackluster supporting cast. But don’t be surprised if wide receiver is once again the biggest need for the Bills in 2027.
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