Khalil Shakir, who the Buffalo Bills picked in the fifth round of the NFL Draft out of Boise State, was a bit confused about Josh Allen’s career at Wyoming.

“I don’t know if he remembers me, but I was a freshman when he was a senior and he was at Wyoming and I was at Boise,” Shakir said Saturday during a Zoom call with western New York reporters. “I played a little bit.”

Well, chances are Allen isn’t going to remember his new teammate because by the time Shakir got on the field at Boise State in 2018 and played in that game, Allen had already been picked No. 7 overall in the 2018 draft by the Bills.

This may be the first and only time that Tyler Vander Waal has ever been confused with Allen, who he replaced as Wyoming’s quarterback in 2018.

In the game Shakir was referencing on Sept. 29, 2018, he indeed played in Boise State’s 34-14 victory over Wyoming as he had 13 yards rushing and a touchdown plus one catch for four yards.

However, while Wyoming’s Vander Waal was getting sacked five times, the Bills were flying up to Green Bay where the next day Allen was going to be making his third NFL start at Lambeau Field against Aaron Rodgers of the Packers.

Hey, let’s give Shakir a pass; he was a little excited after the Bills gave him the chance to fulfill his dream of playing in the NFL, not to mention the opportunity to catch passes from Allen who has gone on to become one of the league’s best quarterbacks, so he probably wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Obviously, he’s a guy who’s shown that he’s one of the best in the league,” Shakir said when asked about how excited he is to get the chance to play with Allen. “He can do it all from a quarterback standpoint. I’m just excited to get up there, get to work, earn his respect, first of all, and just make sure that I go ahead and leave a good first impression.”

There was plenty of pre-draft speculation that the Bills might opt against filling their primary need, cornerback, in the first round if one of the upper echelon receivers happened to fall to them at No. 25.

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That did not happen as six went in the first 18 picks, so general manager Brandon Beane made the smart play and selected Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam.

And then in the second round, if Beane had hopes of taking a wide receiver at No. 57 overall, they were dashed when seven more were taken before the Bills went on the clock.

Thus, it wasn’t until the fifth round when the fates and the grades finally aligned and the value on the Bills’ board was right to take a receiver, and Beane had his eye on Shakir.

Shakir was a player some draft analysts rated as a late third-round, certainly fourth-round pick, so with him still available early in the fifth, Beane, never afraid to make a trade, swung one. He swapped places with the Bears, moving from No. 168 to No. 148, and offloaded one of Buffalo’s sixth-round picks to get the 5-foot-11, 196-pounder.

“Very smart, cerebral, tested well with our guys,” Beane said. “Very high character and he works hard. People at Boise speak very highly of him and he fits our DNA.”

At Boise State, Shakir caught 208 passes for 2,878 yards and 20 touchdowns, and he did it from the outside as well as in the slot. That versatility is coveted in today’s NFL and it was one of the key reasons why Beane wanted him.

But the Bills also loved that he ran a 4.43 at the Combine, had a 38.5-inch vertical leap at his pro day, and he piled up yards after the catch which is why 75.3% of his receptions either converted first downs or went for TDs.

“Kind of fits what we call the No. 4 role, a guy that can play inside and play out,” Beane said. “His No. 1 role would probably be … more of an inside guy, but we think he’s got enough outside speed. We’ll get him with (offensive coordinator Ken) Dorsey and (receivers coach) Chad Hall and let him compete with all the other guys we have. He’s got some straight line speed. I think if he gets the ball and has a step he’s not going to be the easiest guy to track down.”

Shakir said that his interactions with the Bills were favorable and led him to believe that Buffalo was the place he was going to be headed.

“I talked to the Bills a lot throughout the pre-draft process,” he said. “They were one of the first teams that I talked to within Zoom meetings and all that. Kind of doing those pre-draft interviews, and in the back of my head I just couldn’t stop thinking about the talks that I had with the Bills. So, I guess it was a match made in heaven.”

With Stefon Diggs, Gabriel Davis, Jamison Crowder and Isaiah McKenzie ahead of him, not to mention competition coming from 2020 sixth-round pick Isaiah Hodges and 2021 sixth-rounder Marquez Stevenson, Shakir has his work cut out for him, and he’s fine with that.

“Whatever the team needs me to do, whether that’s receiver or that’s lining up in the backfield, whatever it is, I’m going to do it and they’re going to get my all,” he said. “They got a true dog today, and I’m definitely excited to get up there just get to work.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills excited about landing talented receiver Khalil Shakir