ORCHARD PARK N.Y. – Joshua Palmer was ready when his number was called.

“If I’m on the field and I’m running a route, I can get the ball,” Palmer said after practice Thursday inside the team’s training center. “And I’m going to run it like I can get the ball.”

Palmer has all of two catches for the Bills this season. Both went for touchdowns: the eventual game-winner in the late stages against the Texans in Week 1, and a deep ball from Josh Allen in Buffalo’s Week 2 victory over the Lions in the first regular season game at the new Highmark Stadium.

“Two touchdowns or no touchdowns, if my mindset changes based off the touchdowns I get, then I’m losing already, you know?” Palmer said.

His two scores in two games are more than he had all last season, his first with the Bills. Injuries hampered him throughout 2025, undermining a promising start to the year.

“You want to compete. You want to run. You want to help the team win and when you can’t, there’s really not much you can do about it,” he said.” If I can fix my ankle in a day I would, trust.

Palmer pushed himself to return after hurting his leg in Atlanta last season, but his body pushed back. Ultimately, the Bills shut him down for the playoffs.

Now, healthy after an off-season of rehab and recovery, he’s closer to the type of player he knows he can be.

“I’m able to do what I want, when I want, how I want. And that’s all route running is, is the ability to do what you want,” he said.

Palmer had to go the long route to land where he wants. Born in Canada to parents from Jamaica, he moved to Florida for high school before college at the University of Tennessee. He started his NFL career in Los Angeles with the Chargers prior to heading to Buffalo as a free agent.

“The ability to, to adjust, find your lane, and then take advantage of it, and just start growing where you are,” Palmer said.

No matter where he winds up, he never forgets where he’s from.

“I wear my background all the time. I’m proud to be Jamaican. Of course, I wasn’t born there, but I’m still raised as if I was living there. I take a lot of pride in my background,” he said.

Palmer spent time in Jamaica this year, helping recovery efforts after Hurricane Melissa hit the island nation, through his Palmer Family Foundation and the Human Development Fund.

“It’s amazing to see how they bounce back. It’s amazing to see how they don’t let it affect them. A lot of people are still living their normal lives with no house or living their normal lives with half a house or living their normal lives with no electricity,” he said. “It’s normal to them, and they’re able to just adjust.”

There’s that word again — adjust — a frame of mind that allows Palmer to catch on despite what life throws his way.

“The ability to figure it out. Whether that’s injuries, whether that’s two touchdowns, whether that’s no touchdowns, you’ve just got to figure out the next step, and just move on from the past, whether that’s good or bad and just stay consistent,” he said.

For Joshua Palmer, that’s the route, or root, of success. He and the Bills will face his former team on Sunday when they host the Chargers at Highmark Stadium.