Khalil Shakir gets a motivational text every morning from his father - Sunday's read, "Be you. Nothing extra. Go play bully ball."

Hours later, Shakir was forced into action in the 2nd half as the Bills were down to only three healthy receivers after injuries to Isaiah McKenzie and Jamison Crowder.

"My first snap was on punt return," Shakir said. "My first dilemma was, ‘do I keep my gloves on,’ because it's raining. I'm getting into my own head and I'm just like 'play.' And once I stepped onto that field, I felt comfortable because of the way I self-prepared throughout the entire week and how the coaches helped me get prepared throughout the whole week too."

Shakir caught his first two NFL passes late in that game in Baltimore. The first, a 14-yard gain that helped set up the Bills game-tying touchdown, and the next was a 9-yard grab on the sideline that rewarded a Josh Allen Houdini act with a 1st down en route to the game-winning field goal.

He played a total of 16 offensive snaps, plus that one punt return, against the Ravens, but that time was critical for his team to grab the win.

"The mentality I have now is whenever I step on the field, give it my all, do my job, do my 1/11th, and if I stay on move on to the next play," Shakir said. "Do that job that play. And if they pull me off, come off. It's just really living in that moment and doing what I got to do."

Shakir's job will now likely increase beginning this week with Crowder out an extended time with a broken ankle.

"Just because my role might be expanding, I'm not trying to be someone that I'm not and try to be a super hero," Shakir said. "Just keep being me and listen to them with my eyes and ears and just make sure that I'm ready to go every single day."

​The 5th round pick's transition to the NFL has been somewhat slow to start.

He was inactive weeks one and three, seeing his first action with 24 snaps against the Titans in the Bills week two blowout win.

"It's definitely an adjustment, but the way I looked at it was I'm blessed to be here," Shakir said. "I'm blessed to be on this team. I'm blessed to walk through these doors every single day and be around the guys that I am around. So what I'm going to do is accept my role. Whatever my role is that week. They want me to go out there on scout team and week one be Cooper Kupp, star in that role. Be who they want me to be that day and my time will come. I'm not worried about that at all. Star in my role, know my role, prepare for my role and give them everything I got every single day."

Shakir remembers first getting to One Bills Drive for rookie minicamp in May. He settled in with that group after a few days before joining who he referred to as "the big dogs" for OTAs.

"Speed of the game is a lot different," Shakir explained. "The strength behind it all. Making sure that I keep up with that as well. Train for that as well."

Many have helped Shakir adapt to the pro game, but maybe none more so than his fellow wide receivers.

"The room that I'm in is amazing," Shakir said. "Those guys, not only do they perform out on the field, but just sitting in the same room as them as well, it's kind of mind blowing. You kind of have to get over that and then you're like 'Okay, I'm here for a reason too.'"

Still, the reality of being teammates with a player the caliber of Stefon Diggs took some time.

"The first time I met him was at a walk-thru," Shakir remembered. "He had walked in and dapped everybody up and then introduced himself. Guys that introduce themselves when they probably know that everybody knows who they are, that just shows the type of guy that he is. He's not the guy to puff his chest out and say 'Ya'll know who I am.' He introduced himself and in my head I'm like 'Yeah, I know you're Stefon Diggs.'"

And even after the introduction, Shakir needed to warm up to the group.

"I was a little hesitant to ask questions to them when I first got here," Shakir said. "I was kind of just watching. I would run a certain route and then I'd run it a certain way based off how I saw Gabe [Davis] run it or Isaiah [McKenzie] run it or Diggs runs his routes and try and mirror that a little bit. Take things from their game every single day that I was seeing and implement it in my game."

A month into his rookie season, Shakir is more comfortable and ready to take on what's asked of him against the Steelers and beyond.

Asking questions to the big dogs, staying motivated by his dad's daily texts and carrying over his college pregame routine of eating candy, though altered a bit.

"I've been on Reese's peanut butter cups, Twix," Shakir said. "Never really been big on Twix, but lately it's been those two the night before and then in the morning I try and stay away from it all."

​All part of blending the old with the new for Khalil Shakir.