The Buffalo Bills had a massive need at the wide receiver position in 2024, and general manager Brandon Beane attempted to address it with a trade for veteran wideout Amari Cooper.

Sadly, the move did not pan out the way the Bills hoped it would. While Cooper was a good soldier as he struggled to get going, he only tallied 297 receiving yards in eight regular season games, and another 41 yards in three postseason contests.

It’s very possible a full offseason with quarterback Josh Allen will change things, but Cooper is set to hit the free-agent market and isn’t guaranteed to be back, so Buffalo may not be able to find out if that’s the case.

If the Bills find themselves in a position where they have to replace Cooper or simply want to go in another direction, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz thinks the team could make a play for Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver, Marquise Brown.

“I originally had Tee Higgins here. He would be the perfect solution to Buffalo’s need for a veteran outside wide receiver, but Cincinnati will likely give him the franchise tag if it can’t work out a long-term deal. It’s hard to find another receiver for the Bills,” Schatz wrote. “Amari Cooper was there in 2024, there’s bad blood with Stefon Diggs, and it’s hard to guess how much DeAndre Hopkins has left. The Bills need someone who is fast and can stretch the field while Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid work underneath. The best bet to fit that skill set is Brown.

“Unfortunately, he is coming off a season in which a preseason injury limited him to just two regular-season games,” Schatz added. “He’ll be four years removed from his lone 1,000-yard season in 2021, and he has always mixed deep shots with screens, so he has never had a particularly impressive yards per reception average. Still, it makes sense for the Bills to take a chance on Brown since he’s probably the best deep outside receiver on the market.”

Brown inked a one-year, $7 million deal with the Chiefs in free agency last offseason, but the move did not pay off for Kansas City, as Brown appeared in just five games — including just two in the regular season — because of injury.

And injury issues have been a trend for Brown in recent years. Before missing 15 contests in 2024, Brown was absent for three in 2023 and another five in 2022. Even when he was on the field, Brown averaged just 28.2 yards per contest, which is made more ugly by the fact that the Chiefs were in desperate need of a pass-catcher to step up.

Signing Brown as the replacement for Cooper would be the definition of a move that could blow up in Buffalo’s face. We’d have a different outlook if he was signed as a secondary acquisition at the position, but not as the primary.

Unfortunately for the Bills, they may no have a choice but to go cheap at wide receiver. Buffalo is currently $10.2 million over the cap and will be limited in what they can do. The Bills need to make a huge splash to support Josh Allen, but that simply might not be possible.