BLEAV in Bills: Patriots loss has raised some questions about the Bills
Sal Maiorana and Adam Benigni look back at the Bills’ first loss of the season, and discuss what it all means as the Bills head to Atlanta this week.
ORCHARD PARK – Keon Coleman has been on the hot seat this week, not only because he had yet another low-impact performance but because Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott benched him for the first series against the New England Patriots as punishment for something that happened in practice before that 23-20 loss.
However, Coleman is only one member of a wide receiver group that has been underwhelming through five weeks, and, immaturity aside, given his inexperience in the NFL coupled with his manageable rookie contract, he’s actually the least of their problems.
Five games into his tenure with the Bills, 2025 free agent signee Joshua Palmer is following in the footsteps of 2024 free agent signee Curtis Samuel, and that’s not a good thing.
Curtis Samuel and Josh Palmer contracts aren’t delivering returns
Samuel was signed to a three-year contract that included $15 million guaranteed, a deal that counts $9 million on this season’s salary cap, the eighth-highest hit on the team. Dating back to last season, he has given the Bills 34 catches on 50 targets for 288 yards and two TDs.
Palmer has been an even bigger disappointment because he doesn’t even have the same excuse Samuel had last season as Samuel suffered a training camp injury and never really bounced back from it. After signing a three-year deal with $18 million guaranteed, counting $4.3 million this season which is the 15th-highest hit, Palmer has just 12 catches on 18 targets for 174 yards and no TDs in his first five games with Buffalo.
Josh Allen was asked specifically about Palmer following the Saints game when he played just 15 snaps and Allen pointed out that game script and the Bills’ using more heavy personnel were the main reasons for that.
Then he added, “I got no doubt in my mind that his time is coming and his game is coming. He’s going to continue to keep working hard, I’m going to keep working hard with him and trying to get on the same page and making sure that when that time does come, we’ll be ready to take advantage of it.”
Against the Patriots, Palmer was targeted one time and made a 23-yard reception, and then wasn’t thrown to again until the last play of the game when he caught a meaningless 13-yarder as the gun sounded.
Offensive coordinator Joe Brady went rambling in a million directions the other day when he was asked several questions about the receiver group before he eventually admitted, “I think regardless of anything, we’re going to have to continue to improve.”
It took a while to cut through all the coachspeak to get there, but that’s the crux of what the Bills need because if the receivers don’t become more threatening, opposing defenses are going to stay copying what the Patriots did at Highmark Stadium. They made sure they were buttoned up against James Cook and the running game because they were confident that they could hold up in coverage.
True, they got burned by tight end Dalton Kincaid’s career-high 108 yards, but Buffalo five wide receivers – Coleman, Palmer, Samuel, Khalil Shakir, and Tyrell Shavers – combined to catch 14 of 21 targets for 130 yards.
That was 16 yards fewer than Stefon Diggs had by himself for New England. Diggs provided a stark reminder of what a No. 1 wide receiver looks like, but here’s the thing: At the advanced age of 31, coming off an ACL surgery 11 months ago, Diggs really isn’t a No. 1-type receiver anymore, certainly not the way he was during his four-year stint with the Bills from 2020-23, yet he was by far the best receiver on the field.
Buffalo Bills wide receivers lack speed and separation
The Bills’ “everybody eats” philosophy, which became their mantra the moment Diggs was traded to Houston before the 2024 season, is alive for a second straight year, but is it all that well?
Coleman is a work in progress, but there is no evidence to suggest that he’s ever going to become a No. 1-type receiver, and the same is true of Palmer who was always a No. 2 or No. 3 player during his four seasons with the Chargers where he played with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams his first three years and then Ladd McConkey and Quintin Johnson in 2024.
It seems Samuel has only been active the last two weeks because the Bills are auditioning him to become their primary kickoff returner, and that meant Elijah Moore, who had done almost nothing in the first four games, was inactive against New England.
The only receiver performing up to expectation is Shakir who leads the team with 22 receptions (on 29 targets) for 235 yards which is second to Kincaid’s 287 yards, but Shakir is a slot man who thrives on short passes and run after catch. He’s a terrific piece to the offense and one Josh Allen relies on, but he does not scare defenses.
The Bills lack speed at receiver, and they are not particularly good in contested situations, and that’s a problem because they also do not have players who separate well from defenders.
“There’s one-on-ones, and you wanna make sure you’re winning those,” McDermott said. “So we’ll evaluate that, and we’ll look at it on film.”
Against the Patriots, the Bills were up against three very good corners in boundary players Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis, plus nickel corner Marcus Jones, and the Patriots played a lot of man coverage because they felt their guys would hold up and they were right.
“We had some opportunities that we won on, some that we have to make better plays on the ball,” Brady said. “There’s not many players in the NFL that are just going to truly run away from guys in man coverage. That corner tandem is probably the best we’ll face all year, but we obviously have to continue to improve both scheme and at the top of our routes and cleaning that up.
“Again, not something that I’m concerned about, but at the end of the day, we are what we put on tape, and (Sunday) night wasn’t good enough. And, so from the whole, from separation, from winning at man, from running the ball, pass, everything wasn’t good enough. And that kind of summed it all up.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
