Anquan Boldin set to visit Buffalo Bills as camp opens

As the Buffalo Bills get set to start training camp this week, they’re bringing Anquan Boldin in for a visit.

It’s officially football season, as training camps around the NFL get going in earnest this week. Wider receiver Anquan Boldin is one of the top free agents available, due in part to his desire to wait to sign with a team until now and his advanced age (36). But he had a productive 2016 season with the Detroit Lions, with 67 catches and a team-high eight touchdowns.

The Buffalo Bills lost wide receivers Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin in free agency, which helps leave them with the second-highest percentage of team targets (43 percent) and air yards (55 percent) available from last year. Sammy Watkins looks like a No. 1 wide receiver, when healthy, but right now rookie Zay Jones is line to be Buffalo’s No. 2 receiver. They had interest in Jeremy Maclin after he was cut by the Chiefs in early June, but he ultimately landed with the Baltimore Ravens.

A previously undisclosed team Boldin was going to visit was revealed late last week, but now a visit with the Bills seems officially set to happen on Monday.

Boldin is one of the most underrated wide receivers in NFL history. Entering what would be his 15th season, he is legitimately within range of the top-five all-time in receptions and the top-10 all-time in receiving yards. A simple repeat of last year (67 receptions for 584 yards) would do it in both categories, and the Bills can give him a significant role.

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Boldin is strictly a possession receiver at this point in his career, as his yards per catch average dropped to a by far career-low 8.7 in 2016. But he is reliable, tough and pretty productive, and Buffalo can use all of those things in their passing game right now.