Bills Rookie WR Justin Shorter Has 'Most to Gain?'

Buffalo Bills rookie receiver Justin Shorter was highly rated coming out of high school but enters training camp as a fifth-round draft pick without many expectations.

The Buffalo Bills are looking for more out of their passing game this season. And with training camp underway, it will provide a big opportunity for rookie receiver Justin Shorter to impress not only the coaching staff but also his new teammates, particularly quarterback Josh Allen. 

While the fifth-round pick out the University of Florida comes without much fanfare, Pro Football Focus has named the former Gator as the Bills rookie who has the "most to gain" from camp.

"He never surpassed 600 receiving yards or three touchdowns in a season with the Gators, but he also never saw a hefty target share," PFF writes. "His 19.9 yards per catch in 2022 ranked sixth in the Power Five among 213 qualifying wide receivers, and he didn't drop a single pass. Those are promising numbers for a player with room to move up into a starting spot this season."

PFF is right; Shorter never really put together an impressive season in his five years at the college level despite being a highly-touted prospect coming out of high school. Shorter, formerly of Monmouth Junction, N.J., was rated as the No. 1 receiver and No. 7 overall nationally in the 2018 class. 

After originally enrolling at Penn State, where he spent two years as a Nittany Lion producing just 15 catches for 157 yards in 15 games, he transferred to the Gators. Yet, even after the switch to Florida, Shorter didn't live up to the expectations of a five-star recruit, recording 95 catches for 1,395 yards and eight touchdowns in three seasons. 

Although as PFF points out, his lack of production relative to prior expectations could be partially blamed on his number of opportunities. 

At 6-4, Shorter has the physicals of a potential downfield threat for a Bills offense that needs a consistent target other than Stefon Diggs. Looking further into Shorter's analytics via PFF, his average depth of target stands out at 17.7 yards, which ranked him 12th among other receivers in the draft class.

The dream scenario for the Bills obviously is for Shorter to develop into a viable option for Allen in the passing game, as the Buffalo receiving room is coming off an offseason where it lost multiple receivers from a season ago, including Isaiah McKenzie and Cole Beasley. 

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