The Buffalo Bills did their best to improve their playmaker area on offense this offseason. How did they do?
ESPN does not think very well of the work.
This exercise does not include quarterbacks, let’s say that up front. If Josh Allen was involved, the Bills would be ranked much higher… but he is not.
Running back James Cook clearly leads the way as the best playmaker in Buffalo. He led the NFL with 1,621 yards in 2025.
Beside him, the Bills have little. The team addressed that area by trading for wide receiver DJ Moore this spring, but aside from that, Buffalo only selected wideout Skyler Bell on Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Because of that, ESPN lowered the Bills’ rankings in their annual offseason playmakers rating list. Overall, Buffalo fell one spot from a year ago to No. 29 overall in the NFL. The year prior, the Bills slotted in at No. 24.
Here’s how ESPN’s Bill Barnwell breaks down the Bills at No. 29:
The Bills can count on a legitimately great back in James Cook III, whose vision, tackle-breaking and ability to create explosive plays by making players miss and running away from defenders at the second level is as good as anybody else in football. The only downside with Cook comes with fumbles; he had six last season and added a seventh in the postseason loss to the Broncos. Even using his career average rate, Cook has fumbled once every 81 touches during the regular season. As a sign of how much that matters, Cook’s fumbles were enough to suggest that a back who averaged 5.2 yards per carry and scored 12 times generated negative EPA as a rusher in 2025.
Beyond Cook, it remains difficult to get excited about Buffalo’s receiving corps, even after the addition of DJ Moore. While some of the issues surrounding the decision to acquire Moore have to do with factors such as trade value and contract terms — which aren’t being considered here — there have to be real questions about whether Moore is still a difference-maker as he turns 29. After all, 2025 was comfortably Moore’s worst season as a pro, as he fell down the priority list at receiver for the Bears as the year went along. Moore hasn’t missed a game in five years, which is a positive, but he profiles as one of the least imposing top wideouts in the league.
This would be one of the worst receiving corps on paper without Josh Allen on the other side of the passes. Khalil Shakir might have had some explosiveness sapped by his high ankle sprain in 2025, but he has settled in over the past two years as a solid slot receiver. Keon Coleman has been a major disappointment, and Joshua Palmer didn’t hit any new heights after joining Buffalo a year ago. Tight end Dalton Kincaid made it to his first Pro Bowl and was more efficient in 2025, but projections that he could be the high-volume man coverage-beater the Bills have craved are yet to be proven, with injuries giving him problems.
For all the Bills are spending at receiver, the same question still lingers: If Allen needs to throw for a first down to win a game, who should he trust to get open? Every team ranked above the Bills has at least one receiver that fans would bring up as an obvious answer for their quarterback. The Bills still, somehow, do not.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Where do the 2026 Bills’ playmakers rank hand-to-head in the NFL?
Reporting by Nick Wojton, USA TODAY / Bills Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nick Wojton, USA TODAY | USA TODAY Network
