{"id":871879,"date":"2026-04-22T12:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871879\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:36:22","slug":"the-reason-the-bills-cant-take-a-wr-with-nfl-draft-26th-overall-pick-in-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871879\/","title":{"rendered":"The reason the Bills can’t take a WR with NFL Draft 26th overall pick in 1st round"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reason the Bills can’t take a WR with NFL Draft 26th overall pick in 1st round<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Bills<\/a> aren’t slated to be on the clock until late in Thursday night’s first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

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And when that pick arrives at No. 26, assuming no trades, there’ll be many in Bills Mafia hoping for a wide receiver.<\/p>\n

It’s been a position of need for Buffalo in recent seasons, and drafting a first-round WR sure feels like a flashy move.<\/p>\n

It’s probably not one that the Bills can afford to make, and that’s because of what they’ve already done this offseason.<\/p>\n

The Bills traded away their 2026 second-round pick to the Chicago Bears<\/a> to land DJ Moore<\/a>. Essentially, that’s Buffalo picking a wideout with its second pick in this year’s draft — it’s just a veteran rather than a rookie.<\/p>\n

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If it was still just a pick, would the Bills use their first two picks on wide receivers? That seems highly unlikely.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Shedeur Sanders sets the bar for NFL Draft craziness<\/a><\/p>\n

Moore’s addition has also made the depth chart a little crowded, if not perfect.<\/p>\n

The Bills now have Moore, Joshua Palmer<\/a> and Keon Coleman<\/a> leading the perimeter receivers, with Khalil Shakir<\/a> still in the slot. Buffalo also has the likes of Tyrell Shavers<\/a>, Mecole Hardman<\/a>, Jalen Virgil<\/a> and Trent Sherfield<\/a> under contract.<\/p>\n

It’s not an amazing group, but at least Moore, Palmer, Coleman, Shakir and Shavers will surely make the 53-man roster if no trades happen between now and then.<\/p>\n

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And the Bills can’t afford to overlook all their other needs to add a young WR to the mix.<\/p>\n

Buffalo needs a lot of help on defense, and most mock drafts have them focusing on that side of the ball with their first-round pick.<\/p>\n

Given that their second-rounder went to get Moore, it’d add up that their first-rounder would be used to bolster the defense.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reason the Bills can’t take a WR with NFL Draft 26th overall pick in 1st round originally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[4955,215,214,53,2086,391,1475,7,23703,599,8100,7468,451,6,187,17,3025,3881,37369],"class_list":{"0":"post-871879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-bills","10":"tag-buffalo","11":"tag-buffalo-bills","12":"tag-buffalobills","13":"tag-chicago-bears","14":"tag-dj-moore","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-jalen-virgil","17":"tag-joshua-palmer","18":"tag-keon-coleman","19":"tag-khalil-shakir","20":"tag-mecole-hardman","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-pick","23":"tag-shedeur-sanders","24":"tag-the-bills","25":"tag-trent-sherfield","26":"tag-tyrell-shavers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116448394200055371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871879","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=871879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}