5 reasons why the Buffalo Bills should not draft a WR in first round

Reason No. 5: Position-less wide receivers

As we all saw last season, the Bills offense under Joe Brady is all about spreading the ball all over the field. This led to the Stefon Diggs drop in numbers in the second half of the season. They were not force-feeding him the ball like they were under Ken Dorsey and his offense that dug the Bills into a big hole last season. Instead, it was a balanced offense that spread the ball all over the field and began the emergence of James Cook. It was also the reason for Khalil Shakir’s second-half breakout.

Under Brady, the Bills didn’t need that go-to guy like Stefon Diggs was his first three and a half years in Buffalo. This is another reason why the Bills were probably comfortable trading Diggs away. The offense flowed so nicely with Josh finding open guys and spreading it all over the field. The Bills also let Gabe Davis walk, who folks in Buffalo know, struggled mightily at times getting open. They replaced him with Curtis Samuel, who is a twitchy route runner and can consistently get open. Shakir has also come a long way in route running and Josh consistently found him open for big plays down the stretch.

The Bills offense could be evolving to not needing those traditional “X, Y, and Z,” receivers. Josh Allen loves to sling and spread the ball and Joe Brady’s system seems to match that perfectly. Is it better to have one or two guys who can get open and run the offense through them, or to have four or five guys on the field at all times that can get open at any moment they want with elite route running?

The Bills' offense was the best when they had a version of that in 2021 with Diggs, Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders. It also compliments Josh Allen’s elite scrambling and throwing-on-the-run ability to have guys like that.

So many times have we seen the story of the Bills making the playoffs, only to have Stefon Diggs get completely bracketed and the team can’t do anything because no one else is getting open. If they added two of the top route runners like Ladd McConckey, Legette, Jamari Thrash, Troy Franklin, or Malik Washington in the draft, that would give them insane levels of route running and separation ability. Mixed in with Dalton Kincaid and someone is going to be open no matter what. A quick nugget on McConkey, the Bills have met with him multiple times already.

It also goes hand in with the Kincaid section of this article earlier, if you need to or want to funnel the offense through someone it’s him and these guys will only make his job so much easier. Again, trading down and picking up extra picks to land guys like McConkey and Thrash or Franklin is absolutely the way to go if you’re evolving to a position-less receiver offense like the Bills seem to be doing.

No more leaving Josh Allen out to dry in the playoffs because no one is getting open. It's aslo worth remembering, that Josh Allen no longer needs that one guy like Diggs was to him. He has evolved and he has been and will remain the biggest playmaker on the Bills.