As the Buffalo Bills prepare for the 2026 NFL season, Bills Wire will take a look at the most important contributors on their roster. The team has some cornerstone players who will be returning for another shot at bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Buffalo, and they'll have help from some new additions as well.
Leading up to the season, we will be counting down the top-30 most important players on the roster. We'll recap their 2025 season, look ahead to what they'll offer in 2026, and tackle the most pressing questions surrounding them this coming year.
Next on the countdown is Khalil Shakir.
Background
Position: Wide receiver
Age at start of season: 26
Experience: Fifth year
2026 cap hit: $6,792,000
2025 recap
After signing a four-year, $52.9 million contract extension in the
2025 offseason, Shakir backed it up with another good season out of the slot for Josh Allen and the Bills offense. He recorded 72 receptions on 95 targets for 719 yards and four touchdowns. This was a slight dip in production from his 2024 campaign where he put up 821 yards on 76 catches in one less game played. He has now led the Bills in targets in each of the last two years. Shakir earned a 70.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus last year, good for the 38th-best grade among NFL WRs.
2026 outlook
Shakir returns as Allen's primary slot receiver once again in 2026, but the addition of D.J. Moore likely means a new target-leader for the offense. There are reasons to believe the Bills will pass the ball a bit more than they have in the past couple of seasons, however, so Shakir should still play a big part as a WR who Allen trusts. While adding Moore knocks Shakir down the totem pole, he will also have less attention on him which could mean explosive plays in the run-after-catch category.
Biggest question: How will usage and production change?
Shakir has received screen pass after screen pass in the Bills offense. In 2025, his average depth of target was just 3.8 yards, the lowest among all NFL WRs with at least 50 targets. While he may continue to get usage in the screen game, there's reason to believe that he will be used in more versatile ways in 2026. This offseason, head coach Joe Brady was quoted as saying, "There's really not a lot of things Khalil can't do... as we watch cutups, as we go through things and put it all together, there's definitely ways to get the ball in his hands in different ways."
30 most important Bills of 2026
Check back as we continue the countdown on our list of the 30 most important Bills ahead of the 2026 season.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: 30 most important Bills players of 2026: No. 12 Khalil Shakir
