Recent Bills' first-round pick dubbed a potential 'breakout' candidate

ESPN thinks that second-year Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid will break out in the 2024 NFL season.

Oct 26, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid (86) celebrates scoring a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports / Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Those who were underwhelmed by what Buffalo Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid accomplished in his rookie season simply weren’t paying attention.

The pass-catcher earned comparisons to the likes of Travis Kelce after Buffalo traded up to select him in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, setting an immediate set of almost unattainable expectations for the former Utah tight end. Though he didn’t quite hit Kelce-level statistics, he was incredibly productive, finishing third on the team in receiving with 673 yards on 73 receptions. The 73 catches were good enough to break a longstanding team record—he supplanted Pete Metzelaar’s record of most catches by a Buffalo tight end in a single season (68).

Kincaid was already a prominent fixture in the Bills’ offense, and his role figures to grow further in his sophomore campaign given the offseason departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis. The two combined for 1,929 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns last season; fresh off a year in which he was already targeted 91 times, one can expect even more targets for Kincaid in 2024.

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The thought of Kincaid potentially establishing himself as one of the league’s premier receiving options in the upcoming season is one shared by several pundits across the league, among them ESPN’s Field Yates, who recently identified the tight end as a potential breakout candidate to keep an eye on for your fantasy football team this season.

“But perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the [Stefon Diggs] trade, as far as what it means for his volume of work, is TE Dalton Kincaid, who is poised for a mammoth season that should include leading Buffalo in catches (he trailed only Diggs last season),” Yates wrote. “Kincaid saw at least seven targets in seven games as a rookie, and that sort of workload might look like a quiet day at the office this season.

“On top of general target usage, Kincaid should see a boost in touchdown opportunities in 2024. He managed just two touchdown catches last season, a number I trust to rise in part because of his expanded role and in part because I think Josh Allen has an MVP-level year in him.”

It’s perhaps a bit early to pencil Kincaid in as Buffalo’s leading pass-catcher for next season, but his opportunity is advantageous; he’s the team’s leading returning receiver, and his already-established rapport with Josh Allen could be one that the signal-caller leans on early as he develops in-game chemistry with his revamped receiving corps.