Cole Beasley may be off Twitter, but he's not out of the Buffalo Bills offensive plans

ORCHARD PARK – In an effort to head off conspiracy theories before they take flight, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley apparently deactivating his occasionally controversial Twitter account likely has nothing to do with his recently reduced role in the offense.

Beasley may be unhappy that he has been targeted only four times combined in the last two games against Houston and Kansas City and has just three catches for 21 yards, but that’s a separate issue.

I suspect he cut the cord on Twitter because he’s realizing that almost every time he tweets something – typically to preach on his anti-vaccine platform – he gets lambasted, so what’s the point?

Of course, if he’s tired of the social media grief he receives, he has only himself to blame because in becoming the face of the small faction of NFL players who refuse to get vaccinated, he’s usually the one stirring the embers that spark the criticism he receives.

It also didn’t help him calling out Bills fans after the Houston game, questioning why they were booing him. You remember this quote, right? “Only place I get booed is at our home stadium. Then some of the same people want me to take pictures and sign autographs. I thought Bills fans were the best in the world? Where’d they go? If the vaccine works then why do vaxxed people need to be protected from unvaxxed?”

If his Twitter account has been unplugged for the near future, perhaps this is a step he’s taking to get his mind back where it needs to be – on the field, especially with another big test on tap for the Bills Monday night in Tennessee.

Cole Beasley's reduced role due to multiple tight end sets

As for the issues on the field, his downturn in productivity is due to one factor only: Game plan. The Bills haven’t lost faith in Beasley, and Josh Allen isn’t purposely avoiding the slot receiver.

It’s as simple as this: In the last two games, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has used multiple tight ends more frequently than he has at any point dating back to 2019, and that’s what has cut into Beasley’s playing time because when the Bills have two wide receivers on the field, it’s usually Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders.

“What our approach is since we’ve been here, we’re going to try to do what we need to do to win a game,” Daboll said. “And whatever personnel group of players that we think, or matchups we think … we go this personnel if they do this, we go that personnel if they do that. 

“That’s always going to be an important part of how we go about game-planning and deciding to play the game. And that changes week to week based on our opponent. There’s a lot of guys on our team that we have confidence in and it’s our job to figure out which way to best use ‘em.”

Last week in particular, when Beasley played only 22 of 57 offensive snaps, Daboll utilized tight end/fullback Reggie Gilliam for 22 snaps and backup tight end Tommy Sweeney for 10. Beasley was on the field for the bulk of the three-wide formations, but even then, the bottom three receivers on the roster – Gabriel Davis (14), Isaiah McKenzie (8) and Jake Kumerow (7) – grabbed a piece of the pie.

Cole Beasley a 'huge piece' of Buffalo Bills offense

“I think it was just game plan specific, just trying to get them to see different looks and feel different things,” Allen said, speaking of trying to give the Chiefs more to contemplate. “Cole’s a vet, he’s been around this league for a long time. He’s a huge piece of our offense and he understands some games we’re gonna need more from others and I think everybody on the team understands that. I’ve got no loss of faith or confidence in him. I know he feels the same way and he just wants to help this team win football games and whatever the case may be for that, he’s willing to do.”

Let’s not forget, in Week 1, Beasley tied his career high with 13 targets in the loss to Pittsburgh, and then matched that total in the Week 3 victory over Washington. That day against the Football Team, Beasley tied his career high with 11 catches.

Coach Sean McDermott was asked both Monday and Thursday about Beasley and his lesser playing time, and his answer on Thursday was this:

“He’s been a pro,” McDermott said. “It’s hard when you don’t get the football, and I get that, there’s only one football to go around and sometimes it’s not just one game, it’s two games, it’s three games, and how are you going to react?”

It didn’t look like Beasley was reacting all that well Sunday night when the NBC cameras found him on the sideline off by himself late in the game. It gave the look of a player who was pouting, but McDermott doubled down on his take that Beasley is just naturally frustrated that he didn’t get more action.

“That’s some of what we look for in the character of our players because you’re going to go through some adversity, you’re going to go through some adverse times in your career or during a season,” McDermott said. “To this point Cole has been very professional in the way that he’s handled it, the last couple of games in particular, and I expect the same moving forward so we’ll just see where this week goes. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Cole across the building here.”

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