Bills HC Sean McDermott said Friday on WGR 550 in Buffalo that WR Khalil Shakir won't play Sunday against the Texans. Shakir sprained an ankle late in the Week 4 loss to Baltimore and has missed practice all week.
Shakir leads the Bills in targets and receptions this season. But he has drawn just 18.8% of QB Josh Allen's pass attempts. So this should be an absence the offense can navigate.
OC Joe Brady said earlier this week that he needed to get WR Curtis Samuel more involved, and Shakir's injury should make that easy.
Shakir has run 78% of his pass snaps from the slot so far. Samuel has spent 67% of his pass snaps in the slot but has yet to run more than 14 routes in a game this season.
With TE Dalton Kincaid the only other Bills player to reach double-digit receptions so far, there's plenty of room for Samuel to collect opportunities and deliver sneaky PPR upside.
That's why I mentioned picking up Samuel in our Expert Moves article this week.
It doesn't hurt that Houston has been a positive matchup for slot WRs so far, and a negative for TEs.
That said, Kincaid and Dawson Knox could also see more targets with Buffalo's primary slot man out.
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