90 players in 90 days: Wide receiver Jake Kumerow

The Buffalo Bills have a talented receiving corps that mixes youth and experience brilliantly throughout the depth chart. With a top four, at least, that appears to be fairly close to set in stone, it makes it that much more difficult to win a spot on the roster at this particular group.

What a difference a few years makes in that regard, as Buffalo built their receiver group from one of the league’s worst to one of the league’s best through good trades, shrewd drafting, and smart money spent in free agency. Every so often, though, one of the unlikely additions will surprise.

In today’s edition of 90 players in 90 days,” we profile one of those back-end additions—a veteran who made the most of his snaps on offense.

Name: Jake Kumerow

Number: 15

Position: WR

Height/Weight: 6’4” 209 lbs

Age: 29 (30 on 2/17/2022)

Experience/Draft: 4; signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as a UDFA following the 2015 NFL Draft

College: Wisconsin-Whitewater

Acquired: Signed reserve/futures deal on 1/26/2021 (second stint—initially signed with Bills’ practice squad on 9/8/2020)

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Kumerow’s one-year deal is worth $920,000, which is also his salary cap hit if the Bills keep him on the final roster. There is no guaranteed money on the contract.

2020 Recap: Kumerow began the 2020 season with the Green Bay Packers, and after he received a vote of confidence from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Packers released the scrappy wideout prior to final cut downs. Kumerow signed with Buffalo’s practice squad in September, but he did not appear with the team until Buffalo’s Week 9 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Kumerow managed 17 offensive snaps and 95 special teams snaps in six games with the Bills. He was targeted just once, and he made it count—Kumerow caught a 22-yard touchdown pass in Buffalo’s blowout victory over the Denver Broncos.

Positional outlook: Kumerow faces an uphill battle for roster space, as the Bills have a pretty solid top four of Stefon Diggs, Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley, and Gabriel Davis. Isaiah McKenzie, Isaiah Hodgins, Marquez Stevenson, Brandon Powell, Lance Lenoir, Duke Williams, and Tanner Gentry round out the positional group.

2021 Offseason: Kumerow is healthy and he participated in OTAs.

2021 Season outlook: Kumerow seems like a quality dude and a hard worker, but it’s highly unlikely that he sticks with the Bills. Of course, weird things may happen with any positional group (not that anything out of the ordinary has happened in Buffalo this month) but, barring some sort of unforeseen change, Kumerow will probably be on the outside looking in come September.