ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills fans went from dry heaves one night to deep, peaceful breaths the next.
They went to bed in the wee hours Friday morning empty-handed, their team backing out of the first round and allowing the Kansas City Chiefs and Carolina Panthers to use the Bills’ picks on desperately needed receiver help.
The wait continued until 7:17 p.m. ET Friday, when they opened the second round by taking sure-handed Florida State acrobat Keon Coleman.
As a prospect, Coleman is nearly a complete package as an outside receiver threat. He lacks elite speed, running the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine, but he is 6-foot-4 and 213 pounds, rarely drops a pass, makes contested catches look simple, provides the Bills a red-zone target they didn’t otherwise have besides tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox and even is considered a formidable blocker.
“Just big, physical, size,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said, “plays above the rim.”
Coleman’s skill set often is described in hardwood terms because he also played basketball at Michigan State before transferring. He pictures playing with Josh Allen in cartoonish terms, saying he’s “a quarterback that’s like having a guy from ‘Space Jam.’ He can do everything.” Coleman’s wingspan is second only to LSU receiver Brian Thomas Jr.’s among the top receivers in this year’s rookie class.
Alley-oop.
“I think having the ability to be able to go up there with the confidence that you can come down with the ball every time is a major plus,” Coleman said, “especially when you have a quarterback with the arm and the ball placement he has. It’s going to kind of be like pitch and catch.
“So I think I love that. I was able to hone in on that ability with the gifts God gave me and put some more hard work into it after that. Basketball translates a lot: side-to-side movement, lateral movement, vertical jumping, speed, quick first step and things of that nature all help with the game of football. And then having firm hands, to be able to go up and high-point a ball, come across the middle, grab a ball, it’s all the same thing.”
The Bills have selected WR Keon Coleman out of Florida State with the 33rd overall pick (Round 2). pic.twitter.com/683yKi3fjU
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) April 26, 2024
Shave a couple tenths of a second off Coleman’s 40 time and Buffalo wouldn’t have had a shot to land him without trading way up into the first round. Instead, they traded back twice and accumulated more draft assets for Friday and Saturday. The Bills also drafted versatile Utah safety Cole Bishop 60th overall and Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter 95th overall, shoring up two more positional needs.
Seemingly neglected a night earlier, the Bills’ roster looked much closer to repair.
Rookie receivers usually don’t make a huge impact, especially those taken so late. Plus, Coleman doesn’t turn 21 for another three weeks.
As such, expectations likely will be unfair. He was the first player Buffalo drafted this year onto a roster that expects to contend for the Super Bowl, a roster that was ready to turn to page on top receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis, but still must find ways to replace their significant — albeit inconsistent — production.
Josh Allen targeted Diggs and Davis 248 times, including two playoff games. They combined for 162 catches for 2,002 yards and 15 touchdowns. Then again, Diggs’ stats cratered over his final 10 games, and Davis caught two or fewer passes 10 times over the campaign.
Coleman can’t fix it all. Buffalo will depend on the increased emergences of Khalil Shakir and Kincaid, who unlike a year ago will enter 2024 minicamp deeply soaked into offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s plans. Buffalo added free agents Curtis Samuel and Mack Hollins. Maybe last year’s fifth-round draft choice Justin Shorter can get on the field and contribute, too.
“He’ll have to learn the offense,” Beane said of Coleman. “We’ll see how many spots. Can he just learn the X? Can he learn multiple spots? That may not be right away, but he’ll help us a lot.
“I think it’ll be one of those things: How quick can him and Josh get on the same page? I know Josh is going to be super excited to get him, and I know Keon is excited to be here.”
Buffalo fans should be more energized than the dystopia they envisioned Thursday night after doing business with Kansas City.
The Chiefs snagged Texas receiver Xavier Worthy, the fastest player in combine history, 28th overall. He’s only 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds but has been compared to elite speed-slasher Tyreek Hill. The idea the Chiefs’ offense got tougher to defend was tough for Bills Mafia to stomach, given their elimination losses to the Chiefs three of the past four postseasons.
Four picks later, the Panthers traded up with the Bills to select South Carolina receiver Xavier Leggette at the end of the first round.
Legette was the seventh receiver off the board, but Beane and his scouting department didn’t have enough first-round grades to justify taking any of them. Beane entertained trading back a third time but admitted the receiver depth was starting to feel a little too shallow for further delay.
“Everyone in the draft room kind of knew without me saying who we wanted today,” Beane said. “They see the board. They don’t have to know what’s coming next, so it was kind of unspoken. You could feel the energy in the cafeteria at dinner tonight.”
Coleman was voted first-team All-ACC as a receiver and punt returner last year at Florida State. In 12 games, he caught 50 passes for 658 yards and 11 TDs. The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler noted Coleman’s first drop all season was in the ACC Championship Game. In his two seasons with Michigan State, he had 65 receptions for 848 yards and eight TDs.
He’s a legitimate prospect, the kind of player Bills fans probably would have been fine to acquire with the 28th overall pick, taking Beane’s endorsement to the bank. Perhaps they’d have been a tad antsy about Kansas City following up with Worthy because they have so much shiny hardware, and Andy Reid’s opinion spooks opponents the way Bill Belichick’s used to: If that coach really likes a player, then our team blew it!
Yet Beane, never one to curtsy to an enemy, clearly believed his scouting department and their draft board was worth the risk of letting the Chiefs give him assets for a player the Bills didn’t think deserved a late first-round pick.
“It felt good,” Beane said Friday, a couple ticks before midnight. “Yesterday, you never know how it’s going to fall. It’s never easy to trade back when there’s players on the board and you don’t know how it’s going to play out. I think it helped us to add some picks and get value. At the end of the day, we like what we’ve come away with, and we’re sitting with seven picks still.
“Today was fun to get three guys. … It’s fun. I’m excited about tomorrow to see what else we can add.”
(Photo of Keon Coleman: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
