News Bills Team Notes

[Buffalo Bills]

Is Laviska Shenault Jr. a roster lock for the Buffalo Bills?

Eamon Horwedel-Imagn Images

After finding success as a kickoff returner in 2024, the former second-round pick looks to make an impact with the Bills

The Buffalo Bills have a fairly clear top-four at the wide receiver position. Some might even argue that the top five wideouts are already close to written in Sharpie. However, there is still a lot of time between now and the 2025 NFL season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on September 7.

The Bills are more likely to line up with two tight ends on the field at the same time than they are to line up with four wide receivers on the field at once, so there’s no need for them to keep more than six on the final roster. It’s even possible that they keep five, especially if the players battling for that sixth spot all show themselves unworthy of a spot on the 53-man roster.

In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss one of those receivers trying to make the 53-man roster this summer.

---

Name: Laviska Shenault Jr.
Number: 15
Position: WR
Height/Weight: 6’1”, 227 pounds
Age: 26 (27 on 10/5/2025)
Experience/Draft: 6; selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round (No. 42 overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft
College: Colorado
Acquired: Signed with Buffalo on 3/13/2025

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Shenault signed a one-year contract worth $1.21 million in total. For the season, he carries a cap hit of $1.07 million if he makes the 53-man roster. If he’s released prior to Week 1, Buffalo will carry a dead-cap charge of $15,000 for the season. IF he is on the roster for Week 1, Shenault’s entire base salary — $1.17 million — becomes guaranteed thanks to his status as a vested veteran.

2024 Recap: After ending his 2023 season with the Carolina Panthers on Injured Reserve, Shenault signed with the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason. He was seldom used on offense, playing just 45 offensive snaps with the Seahawks over the course of 11 games. He caught all five of his targets for 36 receiving yards, and he rushed once for one yard.

His primary use with the Seahawks as a kickoff returner, where he totaled 459 yards and a touchdown on 16 returns (28.7 yards per kickoff return). He also had five tackles on special teams. After Seattle’s Week 13 victory over the New York Jets, a game where he had two kickoff returns for just 10 yards and fumbled one of his attempts, he was waived on December 2.

He signed to the Los Angeles Chargers’ practice squad on December 5 and was activated for one game. He played seven offensive snaps and 13 special teams snaps in Los Angeles’ 40-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chargers released him on January 7.

Positional outlook: Shenault is one of 13 wideouts in camp to begin the summer. Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Curtis Samuel, Elijah Moore, Joshua Palmer, K.J. Hamler, Kelly Akhariyi, Stephen Gosnell, Kaden Prather, Kristian Wilkerson, Jalen Virgil, and Tyrell Shavers are the others.

2025 Offseason: Shenault is healthy and participating in offseason work to date.

2025 Season outlook: There are four wideouts who I would consider roster locks — Shakir, Coleman, Samuel, and Palmer — and one more, Elijah Moore, who I would call as close to a lock as possible. That realistically leaves eight players battling for one spot on the roster, as I don’t see the Bills keeping seven wideouts. I believe that battle comes down to Shenault, Virgil, Shavers, and Hamler, with Wilkerson a dark-horse candidate to break in depending on his offseason.

Given what the role of a sixth wideout would likely entail, it’s going to come down to what other things a player can do. Can he serve as a gunner on special teams? Can he return kicks? Can he block? Can he sub in on offense at multiple receiver positions? Shenault checks all of those boxes, and he has the success (his kick return numbers) and the athletic profile/draft pedigree as a former second-round pick that most of the other players in the wide receiver gallimaufry don’t have.

Shenault wasn’t terribly productive as a receiver when he actually had the opportunity to be so during his first two seasons in the league. However, he did catch 121 passes for 1,219 yards and five scores on a pair of Jaguars offenses that were just putrid.

The 2020 Jaguars went 1-15 under old friend Doug Marrone, and Shenault led the team in catches, serving as a safety blanket for the three-headed, erm, “monster” that was Gardner Minshew III, Mike Glennon, and Jake Luton (who?!) at quarterback. The following season, the Jags were 3-14 under Urban Meyer, and Shenault was second in both receptions and receiving yards catching passes from rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

While it’s fair to say that Shenault hasn’t lived up to his draft status, it’s also hard to overlook the fact that he played on two dreadful offenses (No. 30 in scoring in 2020; No. 32 in scoring in 2021) in Jacksonville before moving on to two more dreadful offenses with the Carolina Panthers in 2022 (No. 20 in scoring) and 2023 (No. 31 in scoring). He’s still young, he can play outside and in the slot, he can return kicks, and he can serve as a gunner on special teams.

To me, the sixth wideout position is his to lose. He’s a better receiver than Virgil, a better special-teams player than Hamler and Shavers, and a better overall player than Wilkerson. He’s not someone I want in the lineup on fourth down with the AFC Championship Game on the line, but if given the choice between him and the other options listed in this paragraph, I’m likely taking him. I believe he’ll make the roster as one of the last guys picked this summer.

Source: https://www.buffalorumblings.com/20...ceiver-laviska-shenault-jr-2025-nfl-offseason

 

[Buffalo Bills]

Things to watch for this summer at Buffalo Bills training camp

Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

The Bills’ quest to reach Super Bowl LX begins in earnest.

Josh Allen will probably play pretty well at Buffalo Bills 2025 training camp. Now that the hot takes are out of the way, get prepared for a metric ton of information to descend upon you as the Buffalo Bills open training camp in the lead up to the 2025 NFL regular season.

Daily camp observation articles rival mock drafts as the most-clicked pieces of content produced by NFL media in large part because we as fans very much want to drink from a fire hose after months of slow drips of our football fix. But knowing that our attention is not all-encompassing, what items are the most important to pay attention to during camp? Which ones actually move the needle for the team’s direction and which ones are just fun camp stories (turkey burgers) or anecdotes?

Here are a few of the items I am personally keeping my eye on as the Bills go through summer training camp...

---

Tie goes to the cheaper guy​

Mitchell Trubisky and Mike White are the candidates to be QB2 behind reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen in 2025. Their competition isn’t weighted equally though; the Bills can save $2.5 million on the 2025 cap by releasing Trubisky while incurring $750,000 in dead cap. Mike White is the cheaper option, which means Trubisky may have to outplay him by a good margin to be able to maintain another season as the Bills backup quarterback.

Line change on the DL​

The Bills have welcomed new additions in waves on the defensive line — and that trend could continue all the way through Week 7 of the regular season. They already got one addition when rookie third-round pick Landon Jackson was removed from the Physically Unable to Perform list after a brief stint.

Fellow rookie Deone Walker is a defensive tackle the Bills could ease into camp as he recovers from a back injury. Joey Bosa, a free-agent signing, appears to be a full participant from the outset of camp. And then you have defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and hybrid edge defender Michael Hoecht, both of whom are going to miss the first six games of the regular season with suspensions.

So the Bills get multiple shift changes on the defensive line by players coming back from injury, leaving on suspension, and then coming back again. There’s a chance that we see the team’s preferred depth chart on the defensive line late in camp, and then not again until after Week 7 of the regular season. Seeing what that looks like in the distant future compared to what it looks like in the not-so-distant future can help us take stock into what may have changed in the interim.

Does the return of Larry Ogunjobi post-Week 6 take a chunk out of the snaps for T.J. Sanders? The Bills aren’t likely to keep 11 defensive linemen at full capacity; who’s in danger of getting released (or traded, given the return of Hoecht and Ogunjobi happens prior to the trade deadline on November 4)?

In order for anything to surprise or not surprise in late October, there needs to be a standard set in training camp.

Where does Keon Coleman fit into the receiving corps?​

The Bills made two name additions to the wide receiver group this offseason: Joshua Palmer early in free agency and Elijah Moore immediately post-draft. Both carry potential to have impact for the Bills this season, though it’s reasonable to expect Palmer to walk in as a starting outside receiver for a team that had an abundance of “better from the slot”-type players in 2024.

With Palmer profiling as that outside receiver in 11 and 12 personnel sets, and Khalil Shakir being a mostly-slot player, who becomes the third receiver target? Curtis Samuel was the forgotten man last year after struggling with turf toe.

Keon Coleman is assumed to fill that second outside spot, but with Dalton Kincaid hoping for a bounce back third season, does that put the former second round pick as the fourth option in the passing game? James Cook will get some catches and veteran Moore is playing with his best quarterback ever while representing the type of separation skill set that Allen has historically gelled well with.

So when and with whom is Keon Coleman playing this summer? Is he the second receiver in 12 personnel sets more often than not or does that role fall to Shakir? Is he splitting time on the outside with Moore (not exclusively a slot player at all)? Eyes are firmly on the talented Florida State product as he heads into his second season.

What kind of rookie is Maxwell Hairston?​

Not all rookies are created equal in the eyes of the Bills. Some, like former first rounders Tre’Davious White and Tremaine Edmunds, walk off the bus and onto the field the first snap in training camp as starting players. Others, like former Bill and current Dallas Cowboys cornerback Kaiir Elam, find themselves in timeshares and competitions right out of the gate.

Which one is Maxwell Hairston? When and with whom he plays on the first few days of training camp may give us insight into the way the coaches see his progression. So far, the staff’s insights have largely panned out: Edmunds and White became long-term starters for the team and Elam was traded away after his third season. What they think of Hairston early, while not a lock, may give us our first data point on how his time with the team might play out.

---

...and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!

Source: https://www.buffalorumblings.com/20...or-this-summer-at-buffalo-bills-training-camp