“Everyone will eat”

With several coaching stints at Louisiana State under his belt, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady knows a thing or two about good food, and despite the team’s changes to his corps receiving during the 2024 NFL offseason, the coach is confident in who he is. cook.

“In this offense, everyone is going to eat,” Brady told reporters before an OTA practice Tuesday at One Bills Drive.

Brady’s comment, while reading like a confident prediction, can more accurately be described as a philosophy: Buffalo is not going to center its aerial attack around one or two players like it has in years past. The team instead plans to spread the love, utilize the varied skill sets on its roster and get consistent production from multiple sources rather than just two wide receivers.

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This is a strategic shift from years past, as Stefon Diggs became — and remained — Buffalo’s top target from the moment he walked through the door during the 2020 offseason. 160 times during the 2023 NFL season, his fourth straight season in which he had more than 150 targets.

The Bills parted ways with Alpha in the spring, trading him to the Houston Texans after allowing Gabriel Davis — who finished second on the team in targets last year with 81 — to walk in free agency. That’s 241 targets removed from Buffalo’s receiving corps, a number the Bills plan to make up for through a committee approach that will sort itself out over time.

“You don’t sit there and just say you’re going to replace a player, or replace a plan or goals,” Brady said. “Every year is going to be different, and to me the biggest thing as you go into it is, hey, what do these wide receivers do well? And let’s find ways to put them in these positions?

“Right now we have a lot of new things in this reception room. There’s so much good stuff and so much excitement with this, and so I think it’s important for us to not sit there and necessarily focus on we have to replace this, we have to replace this. Plus, it feels like every season is going to be different. The numbers will never be exactly the same. Let’s just see how we can put our players in the best position to succeed.

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Third-year contributor Khalil Shakir, free agent signee Curtis Samuel and rookie Keon Coleman project to play prominent roles during the 2024 season; That said, there are also some intriguing players further down the depth chart in the form of veteran big men Mack Hollins and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, second-year pros Justin Shorter and Tyrell Shavers, and recovery projects Chase Claypool and KJ Hamler.

It’s easy to place some receivers above others on the depth chart, but that too will sort itself out over time; According to Brady, the amount of playing time players receive will ultimately be determined by their own work ethic.

“We told all the wide receivers: your usage, your mindset, how many times you play or don’t play, it’s going to be up to you,” Brady said. “That’s what I love about this ballroom right now. They just come, they go out there and work, with a lot of energy, a lot of juice and a lot of competition. From a game perspective and from a coordinator perspective, it’s a lot of fun.