ESPN wants Bills to address need at WR with dynamic speedster in 2025 offseason

ESPN believes that wide receiver will be the Buffalo Bills' biggest need in the 2025 NFL offseason, circling Texas wideout Isaiah Bond as a potential target.

Kyle Silagyi | Nov 9, 2024

Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images

In this story:

Buffalo Bills | News, Scores, Schedules & Standings

Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has slowly transformed his receiving crops into a bakery, as there’s a whole lot of turnover.

Poor jokes aside, Beane has made significant alterations to his receiving corps over the past several months, letting key complementary piece Gabriel Davis walk in free agency before trading perennial Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans in April. He addressed their omissions by constructing a Frankenstein’s monster-like group of talented, but unproven wideouts headlined by the returning Khalil Shakir, free agent signee Curtis Samuel, and second-round draft pick Keon Coleman, with veterans Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling projecting to serve in depth roles. The team made it through six games of the 2024 campaign before realizing that additional talent was needed, with Beane swinging a deal to acquire seven-time 1,000-yard receiver Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns in mid-October (cutting Valdes-Scantling thereafter).

And though the pass-catching group has shown signs of promise this season (particularly after Cooper’s arrival), some still feel as though wide receiver is a position of need for Buffalo. ESPN circled wideout as the team’s biggest 2025 offseason need in a recent article, with writer Aaron Schatz noting Cooper’s expiring contract as the primary reason why the Bills could be in the wide receiver market next spring.

“Amari Cooper is a late-season addition who becomes a free agent at the end of the season,” Schatz wrote. “If the Bills don't re-sign him, quarterback Josh Allen will once again need a dependable No. 1 target who can stretch the field. Rookie Keon Coleman has an average depth of target of 13.4 yards on all passes but only 10.3 yards on his receptions.”

Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

The only Buffalo receivers currently under contract for the 2025 campaign are Shakir, Coleman, and Samuel; though the cash-strapped Bills may not be in the position to take part in a major sweepstakes next offseason, they’ll need to add additional wideouts in order to field a complete receiving crops. Analyst Jordan Reid believes Buffalo should address its positional deficiency by selecting dynamic Texas wide receiver Isaiah Bond in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft (the outlet believes the Bills will have the 30th overall selection).

“The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Bond is an explosive all-around threat who could provide a dynamic receiving option for Allen,” Reid wrote. “He's a three-level type of receiver whose vertical speed could open up an offense that has struggled to generate explosive plays.”

Bond, a simply electric wide receiver who transferred from Alabama to Texas last summer, has caught 23 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns this year in Austin. He’s coming off a sophomore season in Tuscaloosa in which he reeled in 48 passes for 668 yards and four scores. The 20-year-old possesses dynamic speed and incredible ball-tracking abilities; though player comparisons are a dangerous game, one can’t help but be reminded of Miami Dolphins wideout Jaylen Waddle when watching Bond.

He has room to improve as a route runner, but he’d immediately serve as a bonafide deep threat the likes of which Josh Allen has not had since John Brown (one could make an argument for Gabriel Davis, but the now-Jacksonville Jaguars receiver does not possess the elite vertical speed that Brown and Bond boast). He’d add a different dynamic to Buffalo’s offense and make it a more well-rounded and cohesive unit; Bond stretching defenses vertically on the outside would create space for Shakir and Dalton Kincaid to operate underneath, and if defenses choose to focus on the short and intermediate games, Bond will pay them pay downfield. If defenses somehow account for all three of these pass-catchers, Allen can trust Coleman to come down with a contested catch along the sideline.

Elite speed is something that the Bills’ receiving corps has lacked (or perhaps hasn’t properly utilized) in some time, and adding Bond in an offseason in which wide receiver is an objective position of need certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea. That said, thinking about the 2025 NFL Draft amid a season in which Buffalo is 7-2 and has Super Bowl aspirations is perhaps a bit premature.

— Enjoy free coverage of the Bills from Buffalo Bills on SI —