Curtis Samuel of the Buffalo Bills carries the ball for a touchdown
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Curtis Samuel of the Buffalo Bills carries the ball for a touchdown
The Buffalo Bills pulled off a big trade for wide receiver DJ Moore on Thursday, giving quarterback Josh Allen a new top target and reuniting Moore with a former teammate — at least for the moment.
As ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg and Courtney Cronin noted, the Bills paid a relatively high price to land Moore and have a good chunk of guaranteed money coming.
“Buffalo is sending a 2026 second-round draft pick to Chicago in exchange for Moore and a 2026 fifth-round selection, sources told Schefter,” the pair wrote.
“The Bills will be guaranteeing $15.5 million of Moore’s $23.5 million base salary in 2028, agents Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey told Schefter. Moore’s $23.5 million base salary in 2026 is fully guaranteed, and his 2027 base salary, also $23.5 million, becomes fully guaranteed next week.”
With such a big investment in Moore, the Bills could be cutting ties with another veteran receiver who spent time with Moore on the Carolina Panthers.
Curtis Samuel Could Be on Cut Watch
As the report noted, the Bills have a wide receiver room filled with veteran players on shaky status.
“Moore will join a receivers room for the 2026 season that has some question marks regarding their status outside of Khalil Shakir, including Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer and Curtis Samuel, Moore’s former Panthers teammate,” Cronin and Getzenberg wrote.
There had already been suggestions that the Bills could cut ties with Samuel. Pro Football Focus analyst Thomas Valentine called him a top cut candidate for a Bills team in desperate need of cap space.
“Curtis Samuel has one year left on his three-year $24 million contract, but the veteran Bills receiver might not see the deal out,” Valentine wrote. “He played a bit-part role in a Bills receiving room that needed some juice in 2025, playing just 185 total snaps. Multiple injuries broke up his season, and Samuel only suited up in seven total games, and he caught just eight of 12 targets for 83 yards and a touchdown in those contests.”
Though he came to the team as a major free-agency addition in 2024, Samuel has struggled to consistently produce with the Bills, making just seven receptions for 81 yards and one touchdown in 2025 while dealing with injuries.
Bills Face Another Big Decision
Samuel may not be the only member of the Bills’ receiver room on the bubble. Third-year wide receiver Keon Coleman faces a shaky future after he ran into some disciplinary issues this season, getting bench two times for missing team practices and meetings.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport predicted that the Bills could find some compensation for Coleman, shipping him to the Indianapolis Colts for veteran receiver Michael Pittman Jr. and a sixth-round pick.
“Pittman hasn’t been as productive the past two seasons as he was earlier in his career, but the seventh-year veteran has a pair of 1,000-yard seasons on his NFL resume,” Davenport wrote. “Even if he’s not the true ‘alpha’ wideout the Buffalo Bills so badly need, he’d be a sizable upgrade to the team’s passing-game weapons. He’d also likely be amenable to an extension that would drop his cap hit in 2026.”