Bills Anounce Top Star Player for $570.95 Million WR After Welcoming…
After trading away their top wide receiver and watching their No. 2 leave in free agency, the Buffalo Bills have some work to rebuild their receiving corps.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane suggested that the team could be active in free agency after the completion of this month’s NFL Draft, and one analyst believes a former Dallas Cowboys receiver could be a logical target.
Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder compiled a list of one free agent for all 32 NFL teams to target, suggesting the Bills look at veteran Michael Gallup after his March release from the Cowboys.
Michael Gallup Could Compete for Starting Job
Holder stressed that Gallup would not be coming to Buffalo to take over for Stefon Diggs, who served as the team’s No. 1 receiver for the last four seasons. The Bills traded Diggs to the Houston Texans in a surprise move, leaving a gaping hole in their offense. Just weeks before the Diggs trade, the Bills watched No. 2 receiver Gabe Davis sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.
Signing Gallup could help give the Bills a reliable target, Holder wrote.
“After the Stefon Diggs trade, the Bills could use some help at wide receiver. While Gallup won’t replace what Diggs brought to the offense, Buffalo needs to equip Josh Allen with as many weapons as possible to help replicate the four-time Pro Bowler’s production,” Holder wrote.
Holder added that Gallup would have the chance to compete for a starting spot with the Bills. The 28-year-old receiver joined the Cowboys as a third-round pick in 2018 and had a breakout season in 2019, making 66 catches for 1,107 yards and six touchdowns.
But Gallup tore his ACL in 2021, then saw a significant dip in production in each of the past two seasons. Though he signed a five-year, $57.5 million contract with the Cowboys, the team ultimately decided to release Gallup in March.
Bills Could Snag Receiver With First-Round Pick
Many analysts believe the Bills will not wait until after the NFL Draft to start addressing their receiving corps. The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia suggested that Beane could trade up in the first round, moving up to the No. 7 overall pick to snag LSU pass-catcher Malik Nabers.
“I continue to believe that anything, including a move like this one on draft day, is a real possibility for the Bills,” Buscaglia wrote “[Bills general manager Brandon] Beane has long been an aggressive draft-day trader when he’s excited about a prospect and how he’d fit their system. Now, with a gaping hole for a top target at wide receiver and where the Bills are in their build, this is the type of move Beane could rationalize as one that puts them over the top for the foreseeable future.”
Buscaglia suggested that Nabers would give the Bills one of the draft’s most talented wide receivers, one who could help to immediately fill the void left by the departure of Diggs.
“The Bills have one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Josh Allen, a still-talented roster around him, and a pretty good idea that they’ll be pushing for the playoffs at the very least in 2024,” Buscaglia wrote. “By arming him with a young receiver with elite potential on a rookie deal for the next four years, it gives the Bills a lot of flexibility for how they spend through the duration of the receiver’s rookie deal.”
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Bills sign OL La’el Collins to one-year deal
The Bills are signing veteran offensive lineman La’el Collins to a one-year deal, the team announced Tuesday.
Since signing with the Cowboys in 2015 as an undrafted free agent Collins has made 86 starts during his career, primarily playing right tackle. Collins signed with the Bengals in 2022 and started in 15 games.
Collins missed the 2023 season with an ACL/MCL injury and was placed on reserve/physically unable to perform list. He signed back with the Cowboys practice squad prior to the start of the playoff but did not appear in their NFC Wild Card game.
The 6-foot-4, 315-pound lineman played collegiately at LSU (2011-14) where he was a First-team All-SEC (2014) and Second-team All-American (2014).
It had been speculated for the last two offseasons, and last week, it finally happened.
Stefon Diggs’ separation from the Buffalo Bills seemed like an eventuality at some point, and General Manager Brandon Beane finally pulled the trigger, sending the two-time All-Pro receiver to the Houston Texans for a 2025 second-round pick in a move that shook up the power balance in the AFC.
The move seemingly materialized quickly, but Beane said quarterback Josh Allen wasn’t kept in the dark about it.
“I did alert (Allen) that there had been some inquiries and it wasn’t 100% off the table,” Beane told reporters last week. “… Josh and I have a pretty regular conversation on things, and I think it’s important for me to make sure if I think something could happen to make sure he’s not blindsided.”
Despite what both players were saying publicly, Allen’s relationship with Diggs appeared to grow toxic over the last two seasons.
Diggs and the two-time Pro Bowler had their share of sideline spats over the years, and one of the final straws presumably came following the Bills’ Week 1 loss to the New York Jets. Allen and Diggs reportedly exchanged some heated words in the locker room after the game.
But despite any friction, there’s no denying Allen and Diggs were one of the best QB-WR duos in the NFL over the last four years.
Diggs led the league in both receptions and yards in his first season in Buffalo, and he logged 150 or more targets, 103 or more receptions, 1,183 or more yards and eight or more touchdowns every season he was paired with Allen.
Conversely, Allen has thrown for 4,283 yards and 29 or more touchdowns every season he had Diggs, and he’s 48-18 as the Bills’ starter with Diggs and 15-12 without him. Allen also finished in the top five in MVP voting three of the four seasons Diggs was with the Bills.