In their wild-card win over the Jaguars, the Bills lost a pair of receivers to torn ACLs: Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers.
As of Friday morning, they had three healthy receivers on the roster — Khalil Shakir, Brandin Cooks, and Keon Coleman.
Since then, receiver Curtis Samuel has been activated from injured reserve. Also, receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. was elevated from the practice squad.
Shakir was the team’s leading receiver during the regular season, with 719 yards. Finishing second and third weren’t receivers but tight ends Dalton Kincaid (571 yards) and Dawson Knox (417 yards).
Former Bills (now Broncos) receiver Elijah Moore, who played nine games with two starts in Buffalo before being released, shrugged at the injury issues with the team’s wideouts.
“They got a lot of guys banged up, but they don’t really throw it to the receivers anyway,” Moore said Friday, via Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette.
Sunday’s available receivers had 175 total targets during the regular season (Shakir had 95, Coleman had 59, Cooks had 11, Samuel had six, and Hardman had one). That’s only 36.5 percent of the total 479 passes thrown in 2025.
Last week, the five receivers who’ll be available on Saturday had 18 of the 35 targets, with Shakir catching 12 of 12 passes thrown his way. (Cooks had three catches on five targets, and Coleman was targeted once for a 36-yard gain.)
The key to everything is, obviously, quarterback Josh Allen. But if Shakir gets extra attention from a very good Denver defense (or if the Broncos decide to let Patrick Surtain II handle Shakir alone), it’ll be for Cooks or Coleman (who was a healthy scratch four times during the regular season) or Samuel (who hasn’t played since Week 10) or Hardman (who appeared in only two games) to step up.
