Bills' Joshua Palmer looking to make an impact after injury-marred 2025

The thing Buffalo Bills fans must concede concerning wide receiver Joshua Palmer is that he tried to help the team as best he could in 2025.

Obviously, the expectations for a player who signed a nice three-year free agent contract which guaranteed him $18 million were far greater than “trying to help the team as best he could” but there were circumstances that can’t be ignored.

Palmer got off to a bit of an uneven start, and just when it looked like he might be turning the corner in Week 6 at Atlanta, it all came crumbling down.

Falcons cornerback Dee Alford, who is now Palmer’s teammate in Buffalo, dragged him down after a 15-yard reception which probably should have been flagged for a hip drop tackle but wasn’t. Penalty or not, the result was that Palmer suffered a high ankle sprain, an MCL sprain and a torn labrum - a hat trick of disaster of the left side of his body that wrecked the rest of his debut Bills season.

“It was tough,” Palmer said the other day following a training camp practice at St. John Fisher University. “It's like your whole entire side. It's difficult because you can't do what you want as a competitor. Its something you have to accept that I can’t do what I want to do, but how could you help your team the best with what you could do?”

As it turned out, he really couldn’t help the Bills at all. He missed the next three games, came back and played against the Buccaneers and Texans, missed the next two and then played in the last four games before the team shut him down for the postseason.

“I give him credit, he fought through it, it was tough,” president/GM Brandon Beane said last week. “That's tough mentally on you because I think with Josh, when you sign a contract that was his first big deal coming off of his rookie contract, you want to live up to it. These guys, they're prideful guys.”

Before the injuries he had 14 catches for 234 yards; after the injuries he had eight catches for 69 yards. In the Week 18 game against the Jets with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback, the Bills wanted to see if Palmer could help them in the playoffs. He was on the field for a season-high 63 snaps but caught one pass for one yard and that finalized the decision to place him on injured reserve.

“Yeah, it was the right thing to do,” Palmer said, admitting that he knew he couldn’t function properly. “It lingered and just got worse trying to play on it.”

It’s a new year for Palmer and he now has additional competition in Buffalo after the trade to acquire DJ Moore, the free agent signing of Trent Sherfield, and the fourth-round draft selection of Skyler Bell. Also, there’s the return of Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman, so Palmer certainly doesn’t have a roster spot secured though he probably does due to an ugly $9.4 million dead cap hit the Bills would eat if they cut him.

However, here’s the thing: The Bills really liked Palmer last year in free agency given how he performed for four years with the Chargers where he caught 182 passes for 2,287 yards and 10 touchdowns in 58 games. They signed him because they believed in his ability, particularly his knack for separation which has been a problem in Buffalo’s receiving corps.

Nothing really has changed in that respect. Now that he’s healthy again, the skill set remains and if he can carve out a productive training camp and preseason, he should be on the team and able to contribute.

“I'm happy with the group,” he said of the receivers. “We'll see what we all do this year. I know we're all connecting well in the meetings on the field with Josh. We have a good relationship.”

In Saturday’s practice, Palmer made a nice play over the middle on a ball thrown by Josh Allen, and then the quarterback hit him for a deep touchdown later in the session.

“Josh threw a great ball, I had a go route, touchdown,” Palmer said, clarifying that he didn’t beat a particular defensive back but that, “They were in zone and I broke the zone.”

It was the kind of play the Bills were hoping for in 2025, the kind of play he made on Buffalo’s first offensive snap in that Atlanta game when he got open deep down the middle for a 45-yard gain.

“He wants to let (his teammates) know, man, I came here, I want to be a part of this,” Beane said. “This offseason he was still working back from the ankle, it was still giving him some problems. That's probably the thing that lingered the most through the season that we ultimately shut him down for.

“But I think he's healthy, he's in a good spirit, and he's excited about his opportunities and hopefully something like that doesn't happen. I think if it doesn't and he can stay healthy, the ball will find him … I think he'll be able to help us.”

Now that he can compete without being hampered, plus being in the system for a second year, Palmer is excited about what’s to come.

“I guess by nature, the longer you're in a system the more comfortable you get,” he said. “I never really felt uncomfortable last year, but I'm just getting my feet back under me after being injured. But I feel good.”

As for the pressure of living up to his contract, he said, “I feel like every year is a big year, but then again I also have to make sure that it's just another year. Just go out, play ball, play do what I've always been doing. Take advantage of my opportunities and stay healthy. That's the key. Stay healthy.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills' Joshua Palmer looking to make an impact after injury-marred 2025

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