Samuel was left essentially uncovered on fourth-and-goal and held on to a Josh Allen rocket for a score in the back of the end zone. That helped make up for a drop earlier in the game where he was wide open underneath with plenty of turf in front of him that he couldn’t quite corral. Incredibly, Samuel has a $9.06 million cap figure in 2025 and the Bills cannot easily clear any of the contract without a trade partner. He finished the year with a 31/253/1 line and just three games with more than four targets. He’ll probably be on the Bills roster in some form in 2025, but this was not an auspicious start to his three-year, $24 million deal.

Samuel has been a positively volatile performer as of late, and while his two receptions on Sunday technically rank third on his team, the accomplishment is hardly worth writing home about. Samuel will once again be a boom/bust DFS option against the Chiefs next week.

With the Bills up 21-7 in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, Samuel put an exclamation point on the proceedings with a 55-yard catch-and-run score. The play was by far his longest of the year, while the 68 yards were a new season high. It reminds of Samuel’s theoretical game-breaking potential, but he’s still unlikely to emerge as one of the X-factors of the Bills’ Divisional Round rematch with the Ravens.

Despite this game not being meaningful for Buffalo from a standing’s perspective, they were intent on getting Samuel involved after the veteran missed plenty of time this year due to injury. Most of Samuel’s catches were screens or short routes where they hoped he could make defenders miss in space. The overall numbers aren’t impressive, and the workload isn’t indicative of what we should expect in the postseason, but it’s important for Buffalo that Samuel appears healthy enough to be a contributor for them in the playoffs.