A year ago, the Bills‘ receiving room was stacked—Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Deonte Harty—talk about a trio ready to make noise. Fast forward to today, and it’s like someone hit the reset button. Diggs is gone, Davis took off to Jacksonville, and Harty’s out. The Bills brought in Curtis Samuel and Joshua Palmer to patch things up, but it’s clear: something was missing in that wide receiver room.

For this very reason, analysts predicted that the Bills would select a WR in the NFL draft. Fernando Schmude had the Bills grabbing Emeka Egbuka, calling him “a polished, high-upside addition to Buffalo’s passing game.” Mel Kiper Jr. thought they’d snag Adonai Mitchell, praising his “on-field reliability.” Charles Davis liked Brian Thomas Jr., projecting him as a “top-shelf target for Josh Allen.” What did the Bills do?

Oh, they didn’t draft a wide receiver in the NFL draft. Why? Well, recently, the Bills’ general manager, Brandon Beane, stopped by the Pat McAfee Show, where he was asked why the heck they didn’t draft a wideout. Beane addressed their decision, which sounded less like a draft strategy and more like justifying their own mistakes.

“Well, I mean you look at Look at Tom Brady,” the GM started, addressing the Patriots‘ dynasty without a top-tier WR1. “We were talking about some of these teams that won Super Bowls. Look at New England. How many great historic receivers did they have in their Super Bowl teams? But the Patriots were good up front. They had a good quarterback, they usually had some type of run game, whether it was Cory Dillon… There are a hundred different ways you can build it.” Well, that’s a valid argument,

In the early years of the Tom Brady era in New England, the Patriots didn’t feature any top-tier, elite wide receiver corps. In fact, the dynasty was built on a strong defense, a solid running game, and a clutch quarterback in Brady. Sure, Troy Brown and David Patten were solid. But they weren’t your superstar wideouts. But the Patriots still won three Super Bowls.

Fast forward a bit, New England got Julian Edelman, but still, the team wasn’t built on having a dominant wide receiver. But the result? Another hat-trick of Super Bowls. So, safe to say Brandon Beane surely had a point here. But let’s not kid ourselves—the Patriots actually won a bunch of Super Bowls without a strong receiving corps. As for the Bills? It’s a messy part, considering they’re yet to win a Super Bowl.

Cue the real reason behind the Bills ditching a wideout in the NFL draft. It’s Josh Allen’s monstrous $330 million contract extension. Because get this, if you’re keeping your MVP quarterback on the roster on a six-year $330 million deal, you gotta sacrifice other positions. And the Bills’ manager surely knows it. “But when you’re paying Josh Allen what you’re paying him, you got to make some concessions somewhere else,” Beane continued.

There you go. The Bills enhanced Allen’s contract—good for Allen, and great for the Bills. But the gigantic contract extension that made Allen one of the highest-paid QBs affected the team’s roster. In one way or another. Meanwhile, the Bills aren’t the only team who are lacking a top-tier wide receiver.

Will the Dallas Cowboys re-sign their former wide receiver?

The 2025 NFL draft is done and dusted, and the Cowboys now have 12 wide receivers on their roster. Yes. Twelve wideouts on the roster. It’d be easy to select WR2 to complement CeeDee Lamb, right? Well, not exactly. Despite having 12 wideouts, Jerry Jones and Co. are still stuck in limbo deciding on a top-tier WR2. They had an interest in Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan as their second receiving option. But the Panthers snagged him first.

That said, the Cowboys wrapped up the 2025 NFL draft without drafting a receiver, leaving them with a void at the position. “I would start with [Jonathan] Mingo and guys like Jalen Tolbert, and the whole crew like [Ryan] Flournoy,” the Cowboys’ executive vice president and director of player personnel, Stephen Jones, said. “Those guys have potential to be a No. 2, but they’re not there yet.”

“They haven’t done it. They haven’t hit that level yet, and that’s why we have had an interest in upgrading that room.” And that’s where it gets pretty interesting. Speaking of upgrading the wide receiver room, the rumor mill is buzzing that Dallas is planning to reunite with their former wideout, Amari Cooper. ESPN’s Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that there’s a building team interest in re-signing free agent Cooper.

After spending two and a half seasons in Cleveland and a brief stint with the Bills (in the 2024 season), the Bills parted ways with the veteran wide receiver. Back in 2018, the Cowboys traded a first-round pick for Cooper, who stayed in Dallas until the 2021 season. Considering he’s 30, he’s a free agent, and the Cowboys need a WR2—so honestly, there’s a pretty decent chance they end up bringing him in.