![\"Buffalo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2193718649-1.jpg\")
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The Buffalo Bills need to surround quarterback Josh Allen with the right kind of talent, and they may do that this April.<\/p>\n
Among the moves of interest for the Buffalo Bills<\/a> in the NFL offseason is how the team plans to surround quarterback Josh Allen<\/a> with the right players to help him thrive during the 2026-27 run. With that in mind, when the NFL<\/a> draft starts in April 23, you can expect to see the Bills take a serious look at available wide receivers to couple with Allen on the field.<\/p>\n The Buffalo Bills have seven picks in the 2026 NFL draft<\/a>, and their first is the No. 26 selection<\/a> in round one. While safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren of Toledo is emerging as an early favorite for the Buffalo Bills\u2019 first pick, don\u2019t discount the available wide receivers in the draft.<\/p>\n Now, one college standout is surfacing as a \u201cplayer to watch\u201d for the Buffalo Bills, and he\u2019s one who could be dynamite with Allen.<\/p>\n Josh Allen Assistance: Buffalo Bills Could Land Budding Wide Receiver in 2026 NFL Draft<\/p>\n In a Wednesday, April 8 feature for the Bills Wire, Beat reporter Nick Wojton<\/a> gives a draft profile for Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. and calls him a \u201cplayer to watch\u201d for the Buffalo Bills.<\/p>\n \u201cBuffalo is missing their second-round pick, traded for D.J. Moore, but the team picks twice in the fifth round,\u201d Wojton notes on the Bills\u2019 draft climate. \u201cIf things hold there, general manager Brandon Beane and the Bills front office could have plenty of options to consider when turning in their selection cards.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper is 6 feet tall and 199 pounds. His pros, according to the profile<\/a>, include \u201cstrength, yards after catch and versatility.\u201d His cons are \u201ccontested catching considered average\u201d and he \u201ccould add quickness.\u201d<\/p>\n As for a fun fact, Cooper\u2019s father, Omar, played basketball at Louisiana Tech and was a wide receiver coach at Lawrence North High School, according to NFL research<\/a>. So, sports is in the family.<\/p>\n Budding Wide Receiver Would Be a \u2018Strong Target\u2019 for Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills<\/p>\n Cooper\u2019s NFL profile says<\/a> that he\u2019s a \u201cbig, strong target whose two-year rise is bolstered by translatable tape. While he was a full-time slot receiver in 2025, Cooper has played outside, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper is able to \u201cstem and drive past press with his strength,\u201d which is good, and \u201che has potent early acceleration to climb past nickelbacks into top position to challenge deep.\u201d<\/p>\n On the downside, the player\u2019s \u201croutes lack polish and he has average in-and-out quickness at break-points,\u201d but on the upside, \u201che\u2019s rugged once the ball is in his hands.\u201d Also, Cooper\u2019s \u201cability to add yards after contact\u201d could snag him \u201cmore carries than we saw from him at Indiana.\u201d Of course, Indiana won the championship, so there\u2019s that bonus, too.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the NFL\u2019s mock draft shared on Monday, April 7, has the Bills going with aforementioned safety McNeil-Warren out of Toledo for their first pick.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bills signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson in free agency,\u201d Rhett Lewis of the NFL Networks states<\/a> in the feature, \u201cbut pairing the rangy, playmaking safety McNeil-Warren with 2024 second-round pick Cole Bishop gives the Bills a long-term vision of the position.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAnne Erickson<\/a> is an award-winning reporter for Heavy Sports covering the NFL, NBA and college football. Anne Erickson has years of experience covering the NFL and additional sports, and her work has been published via ESPN, Fox Sports and more. She has interviewed some of the biggest names in sports, including Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Erickson also hosts several podcasts and is a Detroit-based radio host. More about Anne Erickson<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Bills\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Buffalo Bills need to surround quarterback Josh Allen with the right kind of talent, and they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-861033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116369539821806638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}