Keon Coleman Outlook: Building on Early Rookie Season Success

Examining Keon Coleman’s rookie season, providing context and metrics to assess his performance and identify growth areas.

Entering the 2024 season, Khalil Shakir was the only wide receiver on the Buffalo Bills roster who ever played in a game with quarterback Josh Allen. Trading away Stefon Diggs, releasing Deonte Harty, and letting both Gabriel Davis and Trent Sherfield leave in free agency, the position group had to be completely overhauled.

There’s nothing insignificant about moving on from Diggs, who led the team in receiving for each of the past four seasons, and Davis, who was second on the team in receiving in 2022 and 2023, so Buffalo invested its most significant offseason resources to reload the receiving corps.

Despite Buffalo needing to clear over $50 million in cap space to become cap-compliant, general manager Brandon Beane’s largest contract given to an outside free agent went to wide receiver Curtis Samuel, who inked a three-year, $24 million deal with the team. Still in need of help at receiver, Beane then invested Buffalo’s top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on wide receiver Keon Coleman out of Florida State.

In Shakir, Samuel, and Dalton Kincaid, the Bills were set with slot options but needed an outside presence for the receiving corps. Specifically, Buffalo needed an “X” receiver, and Coleman was the choice.

Measuring 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Coleman has ideal size for playing out wide, and despite an underwhelming 40-yard dash time, overall he possesses an appealing athletic profile. Courtesy of MockDraftable, here’s how Coleman’s size and athletic testing compared to all wide receivers at the NFL Scouting Combine since 1999.