In the first installment of this series, we covered the offensive backfield and the offensive line
— the engine room of Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael’s system. Now we move to the perimeter, where a blockbuster trade rewrote the depth chart at receiver and left one of the more compelling three-way fights on the entire roster sitting right behind it. Without further ado, let’s check the state of the WR and TE rooms.WR: 2 locks and a genuine three-way fight for WR3
- Starter: DJ Moore
- WR2/Slot: Khalil Shakir
- WR3 battle: Keon Coleman vs. Skyler Bell vs. Josh Palmer
- Depth: Mecole Hardman, Trent Sherfield, Tyrell Shavers (health/IR watch)
Moore and Shakir: No battle at the top
Buffalo sent a 2026 second-round pick to Chicago and got back DJ Moore and a fifth-rounder
— the clearest signal of intent this front office made all offseason. Moore is walking into a system he already knows. Joe Brady was his offensive coordinator in Carolina for two seasons, and that stretch produced the best football of Moore’s career: 1,193 yards and a career-high 18.1 yards per catch in 2020 alone. He comes off a down year in Chicago — a career-low 682 yards on 50 catches as Ben Johnson leaned on younger weapons — but that says more about a crowded target competition than about Moore losing anything physically. He’s the WR1 the moment he steps on the field in Orchard Park, even if Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir end up challenging him for the majority of targets. I see him, at minimum, getting Stefon Diggs’s role in Brady’s first year as an OC.
Speaking of Shakir, he is WR2, and I don’t think where he lines up changes that. Brady has talked about using him more on the outside instead of living almost exclusively in the slot, which is a real scheme wrinkle worth tracking in camp. But alignment is a side conversation next to production. Shakir led this offense in every meaningful category last season — 72 catches on 95 targets for 719 yards and four touchdowns — and he led the entire NFL with 173 receiving yards off screen passes. Whether he plays more X or Z this year or stays mostly in the slot, he’s this team’s second option in the passing game. Moore and Shakir are the two constants in this room.
WR3: The best fight on this offense?
Everything else is a fight, and the WR3 job is the best subplot at this position. Keon Coleman opened 2025 with an 8-catch, 112-yard, one-touchdown explosion against Baltimore and then all but disappeared — 38 receptions for 404 yards and four touchdowns on 59 targets over 13 games, with more headlines about missed meetings than about production. Brandon Beane fielded trade calls on him this spring and turned them down, saying in April he wanted to “hit the reset button.” That’s a GM staking real credibility on this specific player, and this is finally his shot to make the job his — a new coaching staff with zero baggage from the McDermott years.
He won’t have it easy, though. Skyler Bell, Buffalo’s fourth-round pick out of UConn, set a program record with 101 catches for 1,278 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, and his 2025 yards-per-route-run of 3.13 is the kind of number that jumps off a draft profile. He’s the rookie most likely to force his way into real snaps early. And don’t forget about Joshua Palmer. He is still very much alive in this fight, not on his way out — his $11.8 million cap number makes him a trade candidate, but with his lack of reliability, that contract isn’t easy to be moved. He’s on this roster competing for reps right now.
Proven-but-inconsistent incumbent, hyped rookie, displaced veteran, all chasing the same targets. I don’t think there’s a more interesting camp battle on this offense.
The rest of the room: Depth, special teams value and practice squad hopefuls
Mecole Hardman returns on a modest one-year, $1.325 million deal and brings return experience this group needs — Buffalo ranked 28th in the league with 6.5 yards per punt return in 2025. Trent Sherfield is the low-mistake, special-teams-first veteran option. Tyrell Shavers is one to watch closely: he’s been floated as a potential IR case to open the year, but that’s dependent on how he holds up through preseason, not something I’d call decided yet. Everyone else in the room — Stephen Gosnell, Jalen Virgil, Ja’Mori Maclin, Max Tomczak, Mac Dalena, Deven Thompkins — is realistically fighting for a practice squad look.
Positional battle interest level: High. Moore and Shakir aren’t going anywhere, but the Coleman-Bell-Palmer fight for WR3 is one of the best storylines on this entire roster heading into camp.
TE: 3 locks and a battle for the last spot
- Starters: Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox
- Backup: Jackson Hawes
- Battle: Keleki Latu vs. Shane Zylstra
Kincaid, Knox and Hawes: A settled room
When healthy, Kincaid is one of the more dangerous receiving tight ends in this conference — a matchup problem regardless of coverage shell. Knox brings the veteran reliability and blocking that a play-action-heavy offense leans on. Together they form a legitimate one-two punch, and neither job is in question.
Hawes impressed as a rookie, playing 43% of offensive snaps and flashing more as a receiver than his fifth-round draft slot suggested. He didn’t allow a blown block in 384 snaps at Georgia Tech in his final college season — that kind of technical foundation is hard to find, and a full offseason in this system should unlock more of the receiving upside. He’s not truly competing for anything; he’s a lock at TE3/Blocking specialist.
The Last Spot: Latu vs. Zylstra, and whether it even exists
That leaves one spot, if the Bills carry four tight ends at all. Keleki Latu spent time on the active roster late last season and has familiarity with the building. Shane Zylstra is the journeyman option with more special-teams snaps on his resume around the league. Neither name moves the needle much, and I’d bet against the Bills even carrying a fourth tight end given how deep this receiver room already is. These two might be fighting against the fullbacks for a roster spot.
Positional battle interest level: Low. Kincaid, Knox and Hawes are locked in, and the fourth spot is a coin flip nobody outside Orchard Park is losing sleep over.
Final thoughts
The perimeter of this offense looks improved compared to a year ago. Moore instantly becomes the best receiver Josh Allen has thrown to since Diggs, and Shakir slotting in as a true No. 2 should only make both of them more efficient. But the story that actually plays out over the next six weeks is what happens behind them — whether Coleman finally becomes the player Beane and Brady are publicly betting he can be, or whether Bell and Palmer take that job away from him before the opener.
Next up in this series: the defensive front. Let me know in the comments — who wins the WR3 job in your eyes, Coleman, Bell, or Palmer? And does Tyrell Shavers make it through camp healthy, or does IR end up being his landing spot after all?
Catch up on all this and more with the latest edition of Leading the Charge!
