Wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin is having a season to forget for the Buffalo Bills.
With just 20 catches for 302 yards and a touchdown on the season, Benjamin categorized his 2018 campaign, which is a contract year, as reaching "rock bottom," according to Mike Rodak of ESPN.
"It's just a bad season," Benjamin said. "It is what it is. Just football, man. You have good seasons, you have bad seasons. I've had successful seasons in this league. I'll have plenty more. For some reason, it's just not the year."
Plenty has gone wrong with Benjamin's season, but perhaps some of the issues could be directed to an unsettled quarterback position, as rookie Josh Allen, Nathan Peterman, Derek Anderson and Matt Barkley all drew a start at some point through 10 games.
Still, Benjamin hasn't entirely helped his cause this season when considering he has caught just 20 passes on 56 targets for a career-low 35.7 catch percentage. Only Terrelle Pryor recorded a lower catch percentage rate (25 percent) for the Bills this year, and Pryor played in just two games before getting cut.
Benjamin has been somewhat of an enigma since he entered the league in 2014 as a first-round pick with the Carolina Panthers. He produced a 1,000-yard receiving campaign during his rookie season before tearing an ACL, which caused him to miss the 2015 season. He returned in 2016, but was inconsistent and failed to top 25 yards receiving in three games.
Carolina shipped Benjamin to the Bills in October 2017, and his production hasn't improved. In six games for the Bills last year, Benjamin totaled 16 catches for 217 yards and a touchdown, which gives him 36 catches for 519 yards and two touchdowns in 16 combined games over the past two seasons.
The lack of production arguably couldn't come at a worse time for Benjamin, who is playing the 2018 season on a fifth-year option that the Bills absorbed in the trade with Carolina.
Benjamin is scheduled to become a free agent in 2019 and watched other high-profile receivers from his draft class, which includes Odell Beckham Jr., Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins and Brandin Cooks, among others, get taken care of long-term deals.
Whether Buffalo views Benjamin, who turns 28 on Feb. 5, as part of the future isn't known, but the upcoming offseason will provide answers.
"It's definitely going to be a fresh start," Benjamin said. "Once I find a team, or if I'm still in here in Buffalo, whatever, I'm just going to keep pushing. I learned a lot about myself. Just keep going. That mentality, just keep pushing. Once you hit rock bottom, I guess, it's only up from there, right?"
Now, all Benjamin needs to do with the remaining six games of the 2018 regular season is prove with his actions on the football field that he is worth a large payday.
Benjamin, who is averaging just two catches per game this season, is on pace to finish the year with a career-low 32 catches for 483 yards.
And not too many wide receivers in the league with just a single 1,000-yard campaign on their career will command a premium contract from their team, much less on the open market, with that type of production.
