The Bills' Josh Palmer problem is bigger than you think

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The Buffalo Bills find themselves in a tricky situation.

Joshua Palmer didn't deliver on his free agent hype from a year ago, and the Bills likely need to make a move this offseason to upgrade the wide receiver room. But Palmer's contract makes it tougher.

Palmer was signed for three years and $29 million, according to Spotrac, and that's actually a lot for a player of his ilk.

WGR Radio's Jeremy White shared this breakdown on X:

Only 5 teams pay their 2nd highest paid WR more by AAV than the Bills pay Josh Palmer

Phi - D Smith
Cin - T Higgins
Dal - G Pickens
Det - J Williams
Jax - T Hunter (2nd overall pick money)

I only say this as we think about them shelling out 14+ per for Shaheed or Doubs?

— Jeremy White 🚂 (@JeremyWGR) March 2, 2026

MORE: Cowboys show how NFL salary cap is (mostly) fake

As he writes, there is chatter about the Bills going after Rashid Shaheed or Romeo Doubs in free agency.

Both of them would command more money than Palmer. The Bills are also paying Khalil Shakir eight figures per season to play in the slot.

None of the wideouts are getting paid the $30-plus million per season of the top WRs, so the breakdown is slightly different than the WR2s mentioned above.

Still, it's something to consider. There's only so much money the Bills can put into the wide receiver group. 

Maybe that points toward an early draft pick being spent at WR rather than landing one of the top free agent wideouts, but given that free agency comes first, the Bills will provide fans a hint into their thinking once the bidding wars start on the top available wide receivers.

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