Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills have invested a great deal in their tight end room. All three players on the 53-man roster at the position are draft picks of the Bills. One is on his second contract with the team, and his cap number is among the highest on the squad. Another player is a rookie. The third tight end in this sequence, though, is the one everyone expects to be the top dog at the position.
He’s a former first-round pick who rewrote the Bills’ record books as a rookie, setting the team record for receptions by a first-year player as well as the team record for total receptions by a tight end regardless of service time. After that first season, he seemed poised to break out in year two as one of the league’s best at the position.
However, that breakout never did occur, as his second season served as a stark reminder that development is rarely linear in nature. There were mitigating circumstances that explained why this player took a noticeable step backwards, but both he and the team have made it their mission to ensure the next step in his development is forward.
In our latest installment of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss the top tight end on the Bills’ depth chart.
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Name: Dalton Kincaid
Number: 86
Position: TE
Height/Weight: 6’4”, 240 pounds
Age: 25 (26 on 10/18/2025)
Experience/Draft: 3; selected by Buffalo in the first round (No. 25 overall) of the 2023 NFL Draft
College: Utah
Acquired: First-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Kincaid enters the third year of his four-year rookie contract, which contains a club option for a fifth year since he was a first-round draft pick. The total value of the contract is just north of $13 million. For the 2025 season, Kincaid’s cap hit is $3,670,425. If the Bills were to release him, they would carry a dead-cap charge of $7,942,659.
2024 Recap: Kincaid followed up his stellar rookie season, a year in which he caught 73 passes for 673 yards and two scores, with a much less successful 2024 campaign. Part of the reason for his slide was a knee injury that he suffered midway through the season, which caused him to miss four games and lingered throughout the year even when he did return to play.
Despite missing so much time, Kincaid was still second on the team in targets, as Buffalo quarterbacks looked his way 75 times on the season. That was down from his rookie year number (91), but in the same ballpark. Kincaid was second on the team in receptions with 44, third on the team in receiving yards with 448, and fifth on the team in receiving touchdowns with two.
In the playoffs, Kincaid was still the second target on offense, seeing nine targets in three games. He caught six passes for 71 yards in those contests.
Positional outlook: Kincaid is listed as the team’s top tight end, with Dawson Knox and Jackson...
