The Buffalo Bills’ receiving corps is going to look a lot different this season, but general manager Brandon Beane may have struck gold during the 2024 NFL Draft.
After shipping playmaker Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans in the NFL’s biggest blockbuster trade of the offseason, Beane and the Bills prioritized adding a weapon to All-Pro Josh Allen’s arsenal during the 2024 NFL Draft, emerging with former Florida State standout Keon Coleman in tow.
Coleman, 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, arrives in Western New York having caught 50 passes for 658 yards and a career-high 11 touchdowns during his lone season in Tallahassee last fall, after spending the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Michigan State, and could play a vital role in the Bills’ red-zone offense.
Keon Coleman Already Turning Heads for Buffalo Bills
According to one veteran NFL scout, it’s easy to see what drew the Bills to Coleman during this spring’s draft.
“He’s a big-bodied receiver and will be really good in the red-zone and short-yardage situations,” the scout told me recently, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about a player on another team. “He’s not going to replace Stefon Diggs stretching the field, because he’s a build speed guy, but he’s long, athletic and has a big catch radius. It’s easy to see why he’ll be a fan-favorite from day 1.”
There’s a legitimate possibility that Coleman climbs to the top of the Bills’ depth chart at receiver, and Allen’s target hierarchy this summer.
“I’ve been studying, simple as that,” Coleman recently told reporters when he was asked about how he’s processing the playbook. “I pretty much know what’s going on so I’m confident that I’m gonna know what’s going on when I hear the calls, get the calls and I line up and do my job.”
The Bills are calling on Coleman to play a key role as a rookie, but head coach Sean McDermott is encouraged by what he’s seen from the first-round pick, so far this offseason and preseason.
“In the spring, he was a rookie, still is a rookie, that’s not going to change,” coach Sean McDermott said. “So he’ll face the normal rookie challenges. Specific to his position, as spring went on, I saw him start to get more and more comfortable. I saw Josh spending more and more time with him being intentional about that and building that rapport and chemistry.”
