Bills should pursue overlooked Texans WR amid receiving corps woes

As the Buffalo Bills look for additional production from their receiving corps, they should be interested in an underrated Houston Texans wide receiver.

Kyle Silagyi | Oct 9, 2024

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It’s difficult, at this particular moment in time, to have a lengthy and fruitful conversation about the Buffalo Bills without the receiving corps inevitably being mentioned.

And for good reason. The group’s simply not producing at the rate necessary for a top—or even mid-tier—aerial attack. Buffalo revamped its weapons group in the 2024 offseason, parting ways with perennial Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs and complementary option Gabriel Davis in favor of a mishmash of overlooked, but talented players to which quarterback Josh Allen could disperse the ball evenly; the strategy showed initial promise, with the signal-caller connecting with 10 different pass-catchers over the first three weeks of the season.

The receiving corps has been anything but promising over the past two games. The Bills’ wideouts combined for a pedestrian 10 receptions in their Week 4 loss to the Baltimore Ravens before totaling just four—yes, four—catches in the team’s Week 5 defeat at the hands of the Houston Texans, this on 18 targets. It’s not as though the receiving corps is devoid of hope or ability; Khalil Shakir, when healthy, is reliable and criminally underrated, and Keon Coleman, though far from flawless, has shown flashes through five weeks. It’s the bottom of the team’s receiver group—Mack Hollins, Curtis Samuel, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling—that leaves a lot to be desired; all three of these players are fine in a vacuum and can thrive in specific roles… roles Buffalo is not currently deploying them in.

The Bills need additional talent at wide receiver. Giving the likes of Hollins and Valdes-Scantling roughly 30 offensive snaps per game is not a formula for a top aerial attack, which, if that’s not what the team is aiming for with Allen at the helm, is a major problem. A contingent of the Buffalo faithful is urging the team to acquire a player like Davante Adams, Amari Cooper, or Romeo Doubs, and while any and all of these options would have discernible impacts on the team’s offense, it’s important to consider the state of the team’s roster.

The Bills attempted to position themselves for long-term success in the 2024 offseason, taking their proverbial financial medicine now in an attempt to fix their salary cap in future years. The team acquired premium draft capital as part of their spring cleaning, gaining an extra second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in the April trade that sent Diggs to Houston; it very much looks as though Buffalo is a team that, while certainly trying to compete in the interim, is transitioning to a new core and wants to maintain as much future financial flexibility and as many draft assets as possible.

Adams is the most expensive receiver on the market in terms of asking price and cap hit; the Las Vegas Raiders reportedly want a second-round pick in exchange for the multi-time All-Pro, and even if the Bills are willing to part with a premium draft choice, they would have difficulty fitting Adams’ $17 million base salary on their books (they currently have just north of $3 million in available cap space). Cooper and Doubs would be comparatively cheaper, and while Buffalo could likely financially afford either, it may balk at the asking price considering its organizational need to utilize its draft picks and secure contributors on affordable deals.

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It’s certainly possible that general manager Brandon Beane ultimately opts to take a massive swing on a player like Adams or aims for a double-or-triple with the likes of Cooper or Doubs, but if the executive instead wants to make a potentially under-the-radar move and acquire an overlooked pass-catcher whom Buffalo can place in an auspicious situation to succeed, there’s a receiver in Houston who should pique his interest.

Texans wide receiver John Metchie has not had the start to his NFL career that he anticipated after being selected in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, this by no fault of his own. Viewed as an upper-tier wide receiver in a draft class that also included the likes of Garrett Wilson, Drake London, and Chris Olave, Metchie was taken with the 44th overall selection but missed the entirety of his rookie season after not only tearing his ACL in the final game of his junior season, but being diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia that July.

Houston had revamped its offense by the time Metchie was cleared to return, and though he carved out a niche role throughout his debut campaign, rookie C.J. Stroud made stars of players like Nico Collins and Tank Dell, with Metchie becoming a bit of an afterthought. The Texans’ offseason addition of Diggs further pushed the 24-year-old down the depth chart; he’s currently the sixth-choice receiver in Houston, behind the three aforementioned wideouts in addition to Robert Woods and sophomore Xavier Hutchinson.

Metchie has played on just 12 offensive snaps thus far this season, and while there have been no recent rumblings about a potential trade, Houston reportedly received calls regarding his availability in August. He’s an immensely talented player who is buried on the Texans’ depth chart, a perfect candidate for a receiver-needy team (like the Bills) to take a low-risk swing on.

It’s often futile to bring up the collegiate production of a player (technically) in their third professional season, but an exception should be made for Metchie given his hyper-unique situation; he was an incredibly proficient player throughout his three years at Alabama, reeling in 155 passes for 2,081 yards and 14 touchdowns. He caught an astonishing 96 balls for 1,142 yards in his junior year, excelling as a route-runner as he established himself as one of the nation’s top wideouts; that talent didn’t simply disappear over the past two years, he just hasn’t had the opportunity to display it consistently due to factors largely beyond his control.

And though he hasn’t produced gaudy stat lines throughout his time in the NFL, he played a not-unimportant role in Houston in 2023, flashing as a capable and willing blocker as he played on roughly 27% of the team’s offensive snaps. He flashed when finally given an opportunity to display his ability as a wideout, catching 10 receptions for 100 yards in the 2024 preseason.

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Metchie’s not necessarily an offensive needle-mover, but he’s a young pass-catcher with strong route-running and separation ability, a willingness to block, and positional versatility (logging significant snaps both out wide and in the slot throughout his collegiate career and a healthy dose of both as a professional). Would he have as significant of an impact on Buffalo’s offense as Adams, Cooper, or even Doubs? Unlikely, but he would serve as a low-risk, high-reward acquisition who would give Allen a demonstrably talented option in an, at the moment, lifeless passing attack.

His ability and upside are simply too much for the Bills to ignore. Consider his affordable contract (he has cap hits ranging between $2.2 million and $2.5 million over the next two years) and the likely low asking price (he’s been inactive more than he’s been active this season), and this could be an under-the-radar move that could ultimately have significant impacts on Buffalo’s offense. His acquisition, sure, would likely be initially treated as the addition of ‘just another guy,’ but Metchie has the talent necessary to excel, and the Bills have the available snaps and targets to place him in a position to flourish.

It wouldn’t be as flashy as acquiring a marquee wideout, but giving Allen a 24-year-old recent second-round draft pick with the proven ability to create separation at the cost of pennies on the dollar could ultimately pay dividends.

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