Two moves the Bills can make to revamp WR room and remain contenders

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

After shipping Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans for a 2025 second-round pick, it’s no secret that wide receiver is the Buffalo Bills’ biggest area of need heading into the 2024 NFL Draft.

The departures of Diggs and Gabriel Davis leave newly signed Curtis Samuel, Khalil Shakir and Mack Hollins at the top of Buffalo’s WR depth chart. Competing against the Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, that’s not going to cut it.

Here are two moves the Bills should make to not only overhaul their WR room but arguably come out of it in better shape than they were last season.

Trade 1: Buffalo sends 2024 fifth-round pick (No. 163 overall) and 2025 second-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for Tee Higgins.

Higgins, 25, has already made it clear he wants out of Cincinnati. And while the Bengals may be tempted to keep him for one more season and make another potential Super Bowl run with him, Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow, losing a player of his caliber next offseason for nothing is a tough pill to swallow.

Sure, Cincy probably doesn’t like the idea of sending a player as good as Higgins to a team like Buffalo that it will likely see in the playoffs for the next decade or so.

But as was demonstrated in the trade that sent cornerback L’Jarius Sneed from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Tennessee Titans for a 2024 seventh-round pick and 2025 third-round pick, trading a player that’s due a massive contract extension lessens the value of what comes back in return.

Sneed signed four-year, $76.4M extension with the Titans, which is why a third-rounder was the best the Chiefs were going to get. Spotrac projects Higgins to sign a similar four-year, $74M extension, so recouping a second-rounder next season may be a deal the Bengals simply can’t say no to.

Trade 2: Buffalo sends 2024 first-round pick (No. 28 overall), 2024 second-round pick (No. 60 overall), 2024 sixth-round pick (No. 204 overall) and 2025 first-round pick to the Chicago Bears for 2024 first-round pick (No. 9 overall)

This may seem like an awfully steep price to pay for Bills fans, and it is, but hear me out.

The Atlanta Falcons paid a similar price back in 2011 to move up and draft Julio Jones, and that worked out fine for them. Atlanta moved from 27th overall to sixth overall, and surrendered its first- and fourth-rounders the following year plus second- and fourth-rounders that year.

Picking 28th overall, the Bills are too far back to land one of the consensus top-three receivers in the 2024 class — Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU’s Malik Nabers and Washington’s Rome Odunze — which means they’ll have to get creative if they don’t want to settle for the sixth- or seventh-best WR on the board.

With quarterbacks expected to go with the first four picks, it’s possible Harrison Jr. and Nabers could come off the board fifth and sixth overall to the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants, respectively.

The Titans are expected to take an offensive tackle at No. 7 and the Falcons a pass-rusher at No. 8, leaving Odunze still on the board when Chicago on the clock at No. 9.

The Bears only have four picks in the 2024 draft, and none after Round 4, so acquiring an extra second- and sixth-rounder plus an additional first the following year may be too appealing for them to pass up.

The Bills presumably would feel much better heading into training camp having swapped Diggs (and all the off-the-field distractions he brings) and Davis (who had two or fewer catches in 10 games last season) for the potential of Higgins and Odunze.

Want more articles like this? Follow Yardbarker on MSN to see more of our exclusive NFL content.

More must-reads:

Trending slideshow: The best NFL teams that never made it to a Super Bowl (Provided by Yardbarker)