Because of the nature of the beast, the Buffalo Bills will have to rely on the connection between quarterback Josh Allen and receiver Khalil Shakir in a big way in 2024.
The departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis have been highlighted all offseason. However, Shakir is the only returning receiver on the Bills roster that has previously caught a pass from the QB in the regular season–That’s been overlooked.
Thankfully, Pro Football Focus has a metric that shows that Allen-Shakir connection being the best in the NFL.
PFF listed the 10 best “highest-catchable target rates” between a QB and receiver in the NFL and the Bills have the NFL’s best from a year ago. Overall, Allen delivered 45 passes to Shakir in 2023. Of those, 91.1 percent were deemed “catchable” by the football analytics outlet.
Of course, this statistic does not take into account new connections that will be formed in 2024… such as Diggs heading to the Houston Texas.
Even so… not bad.
PFF’s breakdown on Allen to Shakir can be found below:
Shakir didn’t become a regular feature in the Buffalo Bills‘ offense until later in the 2023 season, making a far greater contribution to the passing attack in Year 2. Still, his impact lessened the fact that Stefon Diggs struggled down the stretch. From Week 7 onward, Shakir had 10 games with multiple receptions, forming a reliable connection with Allen, and earned a 76.6 PFF grade.
Despite a smaller sample size, the Allen-to-Shakir connection was the most accurate in the NFL, as 91.1% of his targets were deemed catchable (49) with an average depth of target of just 7.4 yards. Shakir’s production mostly came from the slot, too, and his 7.5 yards after the catch per reception ranked top five among all slot receivers.
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