The 2026 campaign figures to be a critically important one for Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman, and general manager Brandon Beane already likes what he’s seen.<\/p>\n
“If you know Keon through two years, right, and this is Year three, if you know him the way I know him and the way a lot of his teammates know him, you feel a guy who’s really matured\u2014like the light has come on, he understands some of the things he could’ve done better along the way,” Beane told reporters<\/a> Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think back to when I was 21, 22, there’s things that I [feel like], gosh I probably should’ve done that a little bit better. So I like to remind everyone\u2014was his first two years perfect? No. But, if you just talk to him and are around him, you feel a guy growing into his own, comfortable in his skin, and just like, I know that I can’t do the same things that I did the first two years and expect to have success on the field or in the locker room with my teammates.”<\/p>\n “And his teammates see it. He dropped the first ball today, and I saw like three guys come over and dap him up. Josh [Allen] comes right back to him the next play\u2014a much harder play\u2014and he makes it.”<\/p>\n Buffalo appeared to make Coleman a key part of its future aerial attack when it selected him with the No. 33 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft, but he was a secondary contributor as a rookie and seemed to take something of a step back in his second season with 404 receiving yards and four touchdown catches.<\/p>\n What’s more, he was a healthy scratch for multiple games and fell down the depth chart at times.\u00a0<\/p>\n As if that wasn’t enough, the spotlight was dialed up even more when team owner Terry Pegula blamed<\/a> fired coach Sean McDermott for the decision to draft Coleman during his defense of Beane.<\/p>\n “I’m very proud of where Keon is,” Beane said Wednesday. “He could’ve taken the negativity from the press conference thing, the season, the benchings\u2014whatever has happened to him, he has had a positive outlook on things. And I think not only myself, I think everybody in this organization is excited.<\/p>\n “He’s still got to go out there and do it. And nothing is given. But I think he’s done everything he could control up to this point.”<\/p>\n