One season does not make a career, so it’s a bit early to label Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman a bust.
But the 2024 second-round draft pick had a disappointing year.
Just ask him, and he’ll tell you.
Keon Coleman’s Self-Evaluation
At a press conference Monday, when asked what he saw looking back at the tape from his first year in the NFL, Coleman was blunt in his assessment.
“You wanna know exactly what I see? Man that s— trash,” Coleman said. “You gotta be better. Simple as that.”
In 13 games with the Bills in 2024, Coleman had 556 receiving yards, which ranked 76th in the NFL. However, he caught just 29 of 57 targets. The 50.9 catch percentage was one of the worst among eligible receivers, 183rd among 192 listed on pro-football-reference.com. The league average was 68.2 percent.
Coleman pinpointed how he can improve.
“Like, you have to be more efficient here, you gotta get out of this break, gotta stack your DB, gotta give Josh (Allen) more room to throw the ball, gotta make that block, got to give that extra effort on a touchdown block so if Jimbo [running back James Cook] breaks it he up the sideline, just different things like that,” Coleman explained. “Calling out everything you’re doing wrong to make it right.”
“You wanna know exactly what I see? Man that shit trash. You gotta be better.”
-Keon Coleman on ‘self reflecting’ and watching the tape back on things he needs to improve on.#BillsMafia @BuffaloPlus pic.twitter.com/QpR4tU5Pos
— Dan Fetes (@danfetes) June 11, 2025
Buffalo certainly could use a better Coleman in 2025.
His 29 receptions ranked sixth on the team last season, hardly the production expected from the Bills’ top draft pick – Buffalo had no first-rounder – and the first selection on Day 2 of the 2024 draft.
Buffalo returns leading receiver Khalil Shakir, who topped the team with 76 catches and 821 yards. However, the 10.8 yards per reception was hardly eye-popping, just barely higher than tight end Dalton Kincaid (10.2), who was second on the Bills with 44 receptions.
The Bills signed a couple of free agents in the offseason, although neither represents the high-upside, big-play ability of Coleman. Josh Palmer was added after posting 39 catches for 584 yards and one touchdown with the Los Angeles Chargers, while Elijah Moore comes over from Cleveland after a season in which he had 61 receptions for 538 yards and one TD. Palmer’s career high in a season is 769 receiving yards; Moore’s is 640.
Buffalo also added Laviska Shenault, a second-round pick in 2020 who will be on his fifth team, and drafted Kaden Prather out of Maryland in the seventh round of the draft.
If there’s one bright side to Coleman’s rookie year, though, it was his 19.2 yards per reception, with two of his four touchdowns coming on passes of 24 or more yards.
With MVP Allen behind center, dynamic Cook in the backfield, and Coleman living up to his potential, the Bills’ offense, which finished second in the NFL in points scored, just becomes that much more dangerous – and the good thing is, Coleman knows it and is working on living up to expectations.
