Ahead of the Buffalo Bills’ joint practice against the Cleveland Browns on August 20, injury reports and questionable statuses clouded the team’s wide receiver situation. Sal Capaccio of WGR550 shared a list of “(w)ide receivers I either don’t see at all or are here but NOT practicing: Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Skyler Bell, Dante Pettis” — a large chunk of the wide receivers room.
Brady has indicated a lack of long-term concern for Coleman’s availability even though he’s dealing with a sprained
toe/foot, (per ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe). We don’t yet know what’s bothering Shakir, and Bell was seen doing sideline work with a team trainer on Thursday in Cleveland.
But if you stop and do some math, the injured list renders roughly 30% of the Bills’ 13-man receivers group unavailable for the joint session, and their status for Saturday’s Week 2 preseason game against the Cleveland Browns in question. NFL teams don’t have to disclose injuries at this stage of the proceedings, but during head coach Joe Brady’s press conference Tuesday afternoon we learned that Shakir was injured ahead of the joint practice in Cleveland.
Capaccio then shared a look at wide receivers participating for Buffalo, which encouragingly included DJ Moore and a handful of other mostly expected depth options. Once the joint practice began, the bulk of news and video highlights shared were plays to the Bills’ group of tight ends.
President of football operations/general manager Brandon Beane can’t sit idle hoping the injury bug exits stage left soon. He made a concerted effort to bring Moore in via trade, which so far has the looks of a potentially great move. However, Moore’s effectiveness will be limited if the surrounding starting cast around him is unavailable.
Is it time for Beane to go back to the free-agent pool, or better to roll with the options in-house and available? That depends on the team’s confidence in those who are injured returning in time to be ready for Week 1, and the pool of rostered receivers. Apart from Moore and those currently injured, it’s a group that consists of Mac Dalena, Stephen Gosnell, Mecole Hardman Jr., Ja’Mori Maclin, Joshua Palmer, Trent Sherfield, Quentin Skinner, and Max Tomczak.
Like any fan base, Bills Mafia can equally be talked into the idea of rolling with that roster set, and with signing someone in free agency. Perhaps Palmer takes on a featured role in tandem with Moore, and maybe Hardman helps fill in admirably as Shakir’s understudy.
That said, Beane is probably making calls. There’s no way he wants to risk fielding a compromised group of wide receivers again. Right? With that in mind, let’s take a quick glance at the available free-agent wide receivers. We’ll dive in from least likely to the one(s) who make the most sense.
As of publishing this article, Spotrac lists 17 free-agent wide receivers. It’s an interesting list, to say the least. Without looking, many may guess it’s a trip far down the NFL’s depth chart. That assumption may best be viewed as incorrect. Sure there are a fair number of players who might struggle to crack any team’s 53-man roster, but there are plenty of intriguing names.
Let’s dig in and round up the most notable options. It’s a group that includes 11 players who are 30 years or older.
Tyreek Hill
We could simply point out his public image and the police reports as proof enough that Hill would be an awful signing by One Bills Drive. That said, his game is nearly incomparable and he brings speed that only cornerback Maxwell Hairston can match.
The other big problem, however, is the injury that Hill sustained during a Week 4 game last season — which included significant knee dislocation and multiple ligament tears to his left knee that included a torn ACL. Even if Hill is fully recovered, it’s worth wondering how his prior explosion and speed will be impacted in what would be his age-32 10th NFL season.
Oh, by the way, Spotrac lists his current market value at more than $15 million. No thanks.
Zay Jones
Zay Jones has dealt with some very real personal troubles off the field, and that’s reason enough to guess that Beane would keep his distance in any reunion with the former second round pick of the Bills’ 2017 draft class. It’s true that Beane didn’t draft Jones, but the point remains. What is true is that Beane did orchestrate the trade to send Jones to the then-Oakland Raiders in 2019.
The bigger current issue is that Jones suffered an Achilles tear last November while playing for the Arizona Cardinals. Spotrac lists Jones’ market value at $1.3 million.
Curtis Samuel
(Insert Michael Scott screaming GIF.) It’s tough making a case for Curtis Samuel’s return to Buffalo. He was a priority free-agent signing by Beane, and an expensive one at that. Looking back, the details of the contract weren’t even the biggest concern with Samuel’s tenure. Instead, it was how often he showed up on the injury report, or unavailable as a healthy scratch or otherwise.
By all accounts, Samuel was the consummate teammate, and he does have a rapport with quarterback Josh Allen. Samuel’s best contributions came during more than of the team’s playoff runs. None of that can be discounted. The Bills cannot afford, however, to sign a player with a known and recent injury history.
Samuel’s current market value with Spotrac is around $1.8 million.
DeAndre Hopkins
Will he or won’t he. That’s what all of Bills Mafia wanted to know when rumors first swirled around DeAndre Hopkins being made available by the Arizona Cardinals ahead of the 2023 NFL season. During that year’s annual NFL owners meeting, Beane exacerbated the drama when responding that he’s always going to check in on every good player when asked about Hopkins.
Later on, and as only he can do, Von Miller fueled speculation about Hopkins signing in an appearance with Kay Adams in April 2023. Then a few week after that nugget, DeAndre Hopkins was reportedly in the vicinity of Toronto, Ontario, CA, which only added fuel the signing fire while he was looking for a new team following his release from Arizona.
As we now know, Hopkins never signed with Buffalo because they simply didn’t have the salary cap space to make something stick. Beane was, as it should be noted, very interested in adding Hopkins. Hopkins played with the heartstrings of the fan base, intentional or not.
The latter isn’t reason enough to avoid signing Hopkins. He’s now 34 years old and has taken up coaching at the college level for Georgia Tech. One has to wonder what Hopkins would have to give if he was interested in playing this season, while also considering whether or not he could turn away from his new responsibilities as a coach.
As a means of housekeeping here, Hopkins’ current market value per Spotrac is listed at just under $1.5 million this season. While the former three-time NFL First-Team All-Pro and two-time NFL Second-Team All-Pro would no doubt bring a massive level of excitement to Bills Mafia, his best seasons are in the rearview mirror.
Gabe Davis
It’s no secret that Gabe Davis’ best NFL seasons came while he was a member of the Bills. The man eventually known as “Big Game Gabe” was a fascinating WR2 to Stefon Diggs’ WR1 role. He was also exceedingly hot or frighteningly cold as a starting receiver catching passes from Josh Allen.
When Buffalo had a litany of injuries to contend with during the 2025 season, they brought back Davis following his release from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Davis initially spent time on the practice squad while continuing his recovery from a devastating and complex knee injury (tears to his meniscus and PCL) suffered during the 2024 season. Davis eventually made his way to the Bills’ active roster again after Coleman was benched, and his inclusion seemed to provide a bit of a spark to the receivers overall.
However, Davis’ return to Buffalo ended abruptly against his old team in Jacksonville during the playoffs when he endured a devastating hit to the same knee he injured in 2024. That hit resulted in a torn ACL. After being placed on Injured Reserve in January, Davis wasn’t retained this past offseason, which made sense given the injury timetable.
The question now is where Davis is at in his recovery, and if his knee will allow him to continue playing in the NFL. Davis is still only 27 years old and, if eventually healthy enough, bringing him back into the mix yet again could prove beneficial to Buffalo’s offense.
That’s all a massive risk for someone whose market value with Spotrac this season is at $1.6 million. Despite anything revealed during his first exit from One Bills Drive, Davis has a strong rapport with the team’s current regime. It’s likely this all comes down to his knee. It remains unlikely but not impossible to imagine another reunion if a medical evaluation checks out well.
Hunter Renfrow
If you know nothing else about Hunter Renfrow, understand that he spent he 2025 season playing for the Carolina Panthers. That’s reason enough to include him on this list. Renfrow is a talented if small receiver, listed at 5’10” and 185 pounds. He’s played six NFL seasons (sitting out the 2024 NFL season due to medical diagnosis) — which includes one 1,000-yard campaign with the Raiders in 2021 (103 catches on 128 targets for 1,038 yards and nine touchdowns (per Pro Football Reference).
Renfrow wasn’t a huge part of the Panthers’ plans last season, but he could be an interesting addition to the Bills’ receivers room. His current market value per Spotrac is at just over $1 million. Does the now-30-year-old Renfrow have the necessary gas left in the tank to contribute in 2026?
Tyler Lockett
On the surface, adding Tyler Lockett may seem like an obvious move for Beane to make. Lockett brings explosive speed to the field, even after 11 NFL seasons. After spending the entirety of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, Lockett bounced between the Tennessee Titans and Raiders last season.
Lockett didn’t fare well with the Titans, eventually asking for and receiving his release. Things went better in 10 games with Las Vegas, where he caught 22 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown.
Locket will turn 34 years old later this September, and he hasn’t had a 1,000-yard campaign since the 2023 season. Lockett’s career has trended downward since, with him catching fewer passes in each season since that effort.
Does he have anything left besides sheer speed and quickness? It might be worth a tryout to see if Lockett could reclaim some of his youth catching passes from Allen. If the Bills signed Lockett, look for something in the neighborhood of Spotrac’s listed AAV of $1.71 million for veteran wide receiver.
Sterling Shepard
Sterling Shepard makes this list based off of one recent bit of news. Reports tabbed the Bills as having reached out to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about defensive tackle Vita Vea. Sure, that trade never materialized. But guess what did happen? Buffalo signed a former Buccaneers defensive lineman named Greg Gaines.
If you’ll suffer the psuedo-Kevin Bacon exercise, it’s quite possible that with Tampa Bay unwilling to deal away Vea, they discussed what Gaines might bring to Buffalo’s defensive line. It’s also quite possible that they discussed other Bucs players, both current and former. If so, then perhaps there were conversations about Shepard.
Unless you play fantasy football, Sterling Shepard isn’t a guaranteed household name. If you do know him, it’s possible you thought he still played for the New York Giants, if any team. Well, he’s a free agent, given his inclusion on this list.
Shepard spent the last two seasons with Tampa Bay, and he enters the 2026 season with 10 seasons under his belt. He’s now 33, and his production the last two years for the Buccaneers hovered between 334 and 371 receiving yards and a high of 39 catches and one touchdown.
Shepard recently worked out for the Baltimore Ravens, and it’s possible he could land back in Florida with the Bucs for this season. Signing Shepard would represent a solid move by Beane, but one that may lack the requisite juice to move the needle far to the right. Need another reason to consider Shepard? Don’t discount the Brian Daboll connection. If they did agree on a contract, expect something in the range of $3.3 million to be the figure based on Spotrac info.
Brandin Cooks
Now manifesting a redemption season for Brandin Cooks. It wasn’t a lost campaign for Cooks in 2025, as his addition to the Bills’ roster helped diversify the passing attack. Cooks wasn’t always successful catching Allen’s passes, which may be explained away by their lack of time on task ahead of the season.
We’re approaching similar territory now, with the 2026 season set to start in a few weeks. Still, it’s worth wondering what Cooks might bring in a return to the Bills. Most will never forget his catch that wasn’t a catch, but Cooks likely hopes to make good on any of last season’s personal pitfalls.
It’s a bit surprising that Buffalo hasn’t already brought Cooks back to the roster, especially when considering other avenues they’ve taken in the room. Per Spotrac, Cooks could command in the neighborhood of $3 million this season. It’s not the most affordable option, but Cooks feels like the best idea for a player who has some unfinished business to take care of with the Bills.
There are of course quite a few additional free-agent wide receivers to consider:
- Deandre Carter, age 33 ($1.44 million AAV per Spotrac)
- Joshua Cephus, age 25 (no AAV available with Spotrac)
- D’Wayne Eskridge, age 29 ($1.24 million AAV per Spotrac)
- Bryce Ford-Wheaton, age 26 (no AAV available with Spotrac)
- Malik Heath, age 26 (no AAV available with Spotrac)
- James Proche, age 29 ($1.3 million AAV per Spotrac)
- Josh Reynolds, age 31 ($1.5 million AAV per Spotrac)
- Trent Taylor, age 32 (no AAV available with Spotrac)
Do any of those names stand out as someone you believe the team should consider signing?
Tyler Lockett
Sterling Shepard
DeAndre Hopkins
Brandin Cooks
Tyreek Hill
