Khalil Shakir Drops Hints About 2024 Buffalo Bills Offense

How the Buffalo Bills offense will perform following the departure of receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis is one of the NFL’s biggest questions heading into the 2024 season, and some clues about how the unit will perform are starting to emerge. to fall.

Davis signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a free agent in March and Diggs was traded to the Houston Texans in April. This duo recorded 152 catches for 1,929 yards and 15 touchdowns last season, creating a huge void to fill.

Depth players Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield also left in free agency to join the Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings, respectively. That leaves Khalil Shakir as the only wide receiver on the 2024 roster to have a catch for the Bills in 2023.

The situation puts a lot of pressure on quarterback Josh Allen and offensive coordinator Joe Brady to create a new identity for the group ahead of the new September campaign.

Khalil Shakir says bill infringement will be smooth

Shakir, who will likely face tight end Dalton Kincaid to become Allen’s new top target, told reporters this week that all of the club’s receivers are learning “every different spot so we can play fast and not have to think”.

“That’s the mentality (Brady will tell us) all the time, everyone eats,” the third-year wide receiver said. “And that is if you’re running a certain route, you’ve got to go and you’ve got to get out of the way for your buddy who’s coming running a route or whatever. But as I said before, what goes around comes around. … It’s more of a mentality of, we’re all working together to make sure the game works, and you just keep building from that.

The biggest misconception about the Bills offense throughout the offseason has surrounded the idea that the team needs to find direct replacements for Diggs and Davis. This is not the case. These two goals combined reached 241 targets last year. It will be a much more balanced attack in 2024.

Buffalo drafted Florida State star Keon Coleman in the second round and signed a new group of deep receivers, led by former Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders point guard Curtis Samuel.

One thing the Bills’ top four passing game options — Kincaid, Shakir, Coleman and Samuel — have in common is the ability to play inside or outside. The star power of Diggs and Davis is gone, but it will be much harder to predict how the team will align this season, presenting an opportunity to create mismatches.

Joe Brady and Josh Allen will test various ideas

Change takes time. So while there is plenty of potential within the Bills offense, there will be growing pains throughout training camp and likely into the start of the regular season.

Brady, who replaced Ken Dorsey as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator in November, suggested they will use a trial-and-error approach to see what suits Allen’s game best.

“Right now we have a lot of new stuff in this receiver room and there’s so much good and so much excitement with it, and it’s about trying to get a comfort level on the field for some of these guys,” Brady said. “It’s Josh Allen’s offense, but it’s also about what your players do well, and so this is the time now that we’re experimenting with some things like, ‘Hey, can this guy do this ?’ Can’t this guy do that? And we’ll continue to evolve and hopefully in September we’ll have some good feelings.

That suggests versatility will be crucial as general manager Brandon Beane, head coach Sean McDermott and the rest of the staff begin to pare the roster down to 53 players. In turn, it’s up to receivers like Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Chase Claypool, Mack Hollins, Justin Shorter, KJ Hamler and Andy Isabella to show they can make an impact in multiple ways as they battle for the final spots on the WR depth chart. during the camp.

Ultimately, the Bills offense will operate a lot differently in 2024, but that doesn’t automatically mean it will be worse. The unit was stagnant at times last year. Obviously the original plan was to move guys around in the lineup to make sure it wasn’t an issue anymore.

Only time will tell if the off-season reorganization is a success.

Main image: Jamie Germano/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK