Dalton Kincaid

Kincaid took a while to gain Josh Allen’s trust, but the 2023 first-round pick out of Utah got going from Week 7 onward, catching 56 passes for 555 yards and two touchdowns on 72 targets over the final 11 games. It helped that fellow Bills tight end Dawson Knox missed five of those games due to a wrist injury, but Kincaid’s two best yardage totals (87 and 84) came in Weeks 17 and 18 after Knox had returned. The biggest knock on Kincaid’s otherwise promising rookie season was that he caught only two of Allen’s 29 touchdown passes, though he added a third in the playoffs (along with 104 yards on 11 targets in two games). After scoring eight touchdowns in each of his last two seasons at Utah, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound rookie tied for 17th among TEs with nine red-zone targets last year, somehow seeing only one more than Knox. It’s hard to imagine Kincaid’s red-zone usage staying that low in the future, but with the 6-foot-4, 254-pound Knox still around, Kincaid may continue to cede more prime score opportunities than other similarly skilled tight ends.

Buffalo traded up two spots to select Kincaid 25th overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. While the rookie out of Utah is going to an explosive offense helmed by quarterback Josh Allen, the presence of fellow tight end Dawson Knox likely will prevent Kincaid from taking on large snap counts. Knox already has excellent red-zone chemistry with Allen, having caught 15 touchdowns over the past two seasons, and there will only be so many targets to go around for the tight ends behind wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis. Kincaid scored eight touchdowns each of his last two seasons at Utah, and he finished with 70 catches for 890 yards in 2022. The 6-foot-4 tight end has the skills and situation to develop into a productive pass catcher at the position, but he’ll likely be brought along slowly unless injuries to teammates thrust him into a key role.