Buffalo Bills 2024 roster bubble watch: Wide receiver

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Buffalo Bills Mandatory Minicamp
Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images

Whether five or six, the Bills have a decision to make

Few teams have as many roster spots open as fans sometimes believe. The 2024 Buffalo Bills are no different.

Barring some sort of ridiculous sequence of events, a lot of teams are looking for the 50th through 53rd man on their roster during the spring and summer. This makes isolating the battles with a high probability of not getting blindsided by a surprise cut a more palatable task.

In regards to the Bills, there are a few battles to keep under close watch during the coming weeks. A few hinge on the number of total players the team elects to keep at a specific position. A few may hinge on the status of injuries. But regardless of the reasoning, let’s take a gander at some of the bubble players who could either make the team, be an active contributor on game days, both, or neither, starting with the wide receiver position:

Marquez Valdes-Scantling

When the Bills signed MVS after the 2024 NFL Draft to a one-year deal that included $2.25 million fully guaranteed, the assumption by many was that his status as a top-five wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills was highly probable. While Curtis Samuel, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Mack Hollins appear locked into the top four spots, the recent silence from Valdes-Scantling brought to questions to the forefront. Was he going to be this year’s version of tight end O.J. Howard, who was released in 2022 before ever playing a regular-season game with the Bills after signing a one-year contract with $3.195 million guaranteed? The money didn’t stop the team from releasing Howard. Maybe it wouldn’t stop them from releasing MVS.

The absence of the veteran vertical threat from training camp reports led directly to offensive coordinator Joe Brady commenting in defense of Valdes-Scantling, stating that he “wasn’t here when (they) put in the beginning of the system” that the receiver’s absence had “nothing to do with performance.”

Right on cue, MVS started popping up in reports. Ajay Cybulski of the Batavia Daily News noted at the Bills’ annual “Return of the Blue & Red” scrimmage that the receiver started showing up:

Matt Parrino of Syracuse.com noted even before the scrimmage that Valdes-Scantling had started flashing in training camp when he published his day eight report:

His apparent rise has once again caused the conversation to shift towards the amount of wide receivers the Bills will keep on their final 53 man roster. In 2023, the Bills kept five pass catchers in the receiver room. But that leads us directly into another bubble player for the team:

Tyrell Shavers

Shavers has been a sleeper pick to make the team all spring. I even included him on my initial 53 man roster projection prior to the Bills adding MVS. The flow chart of questions surrounding Shavers looks like this:

  • Will the team keep five wide receivers?
  • If so, does the special teams prowess Shavers displayed cause him to make the team over MVS?
  • If not, does Shavers have the upper hand of WR6 relative to Chase Claypool and KJ Hamler?

Shavers was an undrafted free agent signing with the team in 2023, and managed to get a rare effusive remark from head coach Sean McDermott, who said he was “very impressed” with the former Alabama receiver.

When and with whom a player plays in the spring and summer is far more indicative of their standing with the team and far more predictive of their potential future depth chart standing than how a player is playing, and Shavers catching passes from quarterback Josh Allen during practices, combined with praise from both the head coach and offensive coordinator Joe Brady (who said Shavers had “made the most of” his opportunities) means he certainly appears to have a leg up on one of the final wide receiver spots for the team.

Then ahead of Sunday’s practice at St. John Fisher, McDermott read of a list of players who would not participate, which included Tyrell Shavers.

As for other players on the bubble, Chase Claypool remains unavailable during a crucial time in the summer due to injury, K.J. Hamler hopes to compete as a receiver and in the return game (but hasn’t gotten as much publicity), and Justin Shorter has been mostly absent from reports. There’s still a lot of camp to go, but the spotlight remains firmly on MVS, Shavers, and the “five or six” question for the team as the preseason gets ready to kick off.

..and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday wherever you find your podcasts!

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