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Bills WR Khalil Shakir is making NFL history with his reliability

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Khalil Shakir's efficiency is nearing historic levels.

Kyle Silagyi

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Buffalo Bills fans know that wide receiver Khalil Shakir is reliable, but they—and the larger NFL space—perhaps don’t realize just how effective a safety blanket he is for quarterback Josh Allen.

He’s just always open, this a testament to his fluid route-running ability and comprehensive understanding of defenses. He also catches the ball far more often than not, with this combining with his faculty for consistently generating yards after the catch to make him one of Allen’s favorite targets. He wasn’t a heavily deployed option early in his career, but he emerged as his sophomore season progressed, finishing the 2023 season with 39 receptions on 45 targets for 611 yards and two scores.

The third-year wideout has picked up right where he left off last season in 2024, catching 42 of 45 targets for 471 yards in eight appearances. He currently leads the team in receptions and yards by considerable margins, this despite playing on fewer than 50% of Buffalo’s offensive snaps—he’s simply an uber-reliable player who every team around the NFL would like to have their own equivalent to.

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And though the Buffalo faithful, again, understand Shakir’s excellence, they perhaps haven’t realized that his efficiency is historic. Fantasy football pundit Ian Hartitz sent a tweet on Wednesday showcasing the NFL's two highest single-season catch percentages among wide receivers with at least 40 targets since the stat started being tracked in 1992; Shakir’s 2024 catch rate of 93.3% sits atop the list while his 2023 catch percentage of 86.7% is at second. 

The catch rates go a long way in illustrating just how reliable of a target he is—he’s, more often than not, going to get to make himself available to his quarterback and make the catch, which is why he’s developed into one of Allen’s favorite targets. His usage also contributes to his historically high catch rates, as he, more often than not, keeps his routes near the line of scrimmage; per Pro Football Focus, Shakir’s average depth of target is 2.6 yards, which is the lowest in the NFL among wide receivers with at least 15 targets. That said, it’s not as though he’s reeling in passes and falling to the turf, as his average yards after catch per reception of 8.5 yards is good for fourth among wideouts in the same target criteria.

He’s simply an easy button for Allen, a player who is always available for a layup completion and whom he can trust to make something happen after the catch. Sustaining a greater than 90% catch rate throughout an entire season seems an unfeasible thought, but given what we’ve seen from Shakir throughout his professional career, there’s reason to believe he has a legitimate shot at it.

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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