INDIANAPOLIS — Buffalo Bills president of football operations and general manager Brandon Beane laid out what he is looking for from wide receiver Keon Coleman as he prepares to enter his third season in the NFL.
“That is kind of the challenge to Keon — can you go back and do what you did all [last] offseason in your training camp. … Don’t let some of the maturity issues off the field affect the product on the field,” Beane said during his news conference at the NFL combine Tuesday. “If he does that, he’ll have every chance.
“… And I know we’ve got some new coaches, and they’re excited to meet him and get to work with him and were aware of him in the draft process a couple of years ago, and so they kind want to try to start mold him in the way they see and envision him for our team.”
The 33rd pick in the 2024 NFL draft had a strong offseason going into the 2025 season and popped during training camp. Beane described his work that offseason as “excellent” and that the Bills “couldn’t have asked for more.”
“He came to Phase 1, Phase 2, all that stuff, dialed in, ready to go,” Beane said. “You could tell he’d been working out and then, a lot of the people here were at training camp. He had an excellent camp. Let’s do that again.”
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Coleman, 22, has been in the spotlight this offseason following comments made by team owner Terry Pegula in the wake of firing coach Sean McDermott. Pegula said that it was the coaching staff that pushed to take Coleman, not Beane. Beane, however, has said that he made the pick even if there might have been a different order of player preference on the board between the personnel and coaching sides of the organization.
The receiver has had two inconsistent seasons with the Bills. The former Florida State star was disciplined by McDermott in November for being late to a meeting and was a healthy scratch for four games. He failed to eclipse 50 receiving yards in a game since the season opener when he had 112 receiving yards and a touchdown. He was benched for a quarter of a game his rookie season because of off-field timing issues.
By the end of the season, Coleman had slid down the depth chart and was Buffalo’s sixth wide receiver. Coleman had 38 catches for 404 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games this past season.
New Bills head coach Joe Brady, who was the team’s full-time offensive coordinator the past two seasons, publicly voiced his support for Coleman last month, stating that he will be a Buffalo Bill and that he believes in him.
Beane also noted last month that Coleman missing time because of off-field issues impacted things when he got back on the field.
“Every game he’s missing, the trust and the camaraderie is kind of dropping for him,” Beane said. “Like that’s just the truth. And I don’t know that that fully ever recovered.”
As the Bills continue their preparations for the NFL draft in Indianapolis, a major group to watch for the organization is wide receiver with at least some change expected after the position overall dealt with a variety of inconsistencies in 2025. The group will also, of course, need to mesh well with quarterback Josh Allen with the goal of having options with versatility.
“Like any quarterback, [Allen] wants ’em to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be, and he wants ’em dependable,” Beane said. “Obviously, he wants them to catch the ball, but Josh is usually ‘give me what you got, and I’ll make the most of it.’ And so, I think it’s my job and our job to find as many versatile skill sets at receiver as we can.”
