Wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin only caught 16 passes for the Bills after joining the team in a Halloween trade with the Panthers last year and a knee injury was part of the reason for his sluggish production in Buffalo.
Benjamin missed a couple of games and needed surgery after the season to repair a torn meniscus, but says that he has had “no pain, no aching” while taking on a full workload at training camp. Remaining healthy would put Benjamin in position to play the kind of role he believes he needs to play in order to reverse a downward trend in his numbers since catching 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns as a rookie.
“I’m just trying to go out and work on my craft,” Benjamin said, via ESPN.com. “Get back to just working on my craft and just get back to dominating. ... I feel like if I get the targets, I can go out there with the best of them. Anybody. I just need the opportunity.”
A healthy Benjamin should have plenty of opportunity this season. The Bills are thin at receiver even when Zay Jones is healthy enough to join the lineup and Benjamin should be the top target throughout the 2018 season.
Making the most of those opportunities would serve Benjamin well as he is playing out the final year of his rookie contract. The Bills have already said they want to see how he fits in offensive coordinator Brian Daboll’s system before exploring a new deal for one of two 2014 first-round wideouts -- Odell Beckham is the other -- who has yet to sign one.
