{"id":288908,"date":"2025-11-17T13:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/288908\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:16:07","slug":"keon-coleman-benched-wide-receiver-and-bills-teammates-react-after-buffalo-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/288908\/","title":{"rendered":"Keon Coleman benched: Wide receiver and Bills teammates react after Buffalo win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott benched second-year wide receiver Keon Coleman<\/a> on Sunday, making him a healthy scratch. The reason Coleman was inactive was he was late to a team meeting. It is the third benching of Coleman\u2019s young career following being benched for one drive in Week 5 of the 2025 season and a full quarter in 2024.<\/p>\n

According to reports, the Bills were going to play Coleman despite a lackluster effort against the Miami Dolphins in Week 10, where he half-heartedly jogged through routes. Once he was late to the meeting, it forced the Bills\u2019 hand.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if Coleman will be in the lineup<\/a> in a few days against the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Coleman answered questions from reporters after the game, but bigger questions than that remain for the former second-round pick in the grand scheme of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust got to be better,\u201d said Coleman when talking to reporters in the tunnel after the game. \u201cBetter on my end\u2026 Mistakes happen. Things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thad Brown from WROC in Rochester asked Coleman if there is a lesson he hasn\u2019t learned at this point or a message that isn\u2019t being received.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, I wouldn\u2019t say that,\u201d responded Coleman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it was difficult,\u201d Coleman responded to a question. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing. When you understand the result, what happened to make that happen, you get it. So you just got to be proud of your teammates and root for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

During pregame warmups, Coleman was on the field and keeping it loose, dancing to the stadium music. Some would say too loose, as he was being lighthearted despite his punishment. He did stay on the sideline during the game.<\/p>\n

McDermott spoke with reporters after the game, as well, explaining the reasoning behind benching Coleman. McDermott referred to Coleman as a \u201cyoung man\u201d during the Q&A with reporters, and says he still has hope for him going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get to a certain point and I have to do something,\u201d said McDermott. \u201cI try to give the guys a kind of a strike approach, you get a chance to show your teammates that\u2019s not who you really are. When it happens again, I step in. I believe he will learn from it. He takes it seriously. He will move forward in a way of growing from this. That\u2019s the whole goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman\u2019s teammates spoke candidly about his benching, as well. Quarterback Josh Allen was diplomatic, saying he \u201cdoesn\u2019t make those decisions\u201d and he \u201cwould love to have him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dion Dawkins offered a longer response and was very direct with Coleman through the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Keon\u2026 and I told him \u2018Look, don\u2019t even worry about it. Everybody goes through a different journey. Let\u2019s just say that this is the last time and let\u2019s move forward.\u2018 He said \u2018I\u2019m with you.\u2018 That\u2019s all that we need, right? Nobody\u2019s perfect. In this league, we need guys that come on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeon knows now he\u2019s in the hot seat and he needs to come on and show up for us. Pats on the back are over with and it\u2019s time for him to grow up and he knows it. As an older player on the team, we hold everybody accountable and we shoot straight. We don\u2019t sugar coat it and the words that were said to him, he took it well. We\u2019ll see how it goes this wee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said at the beginning of this season, I\u2019m in Keon\u2019s corner. This league is hard. Being on time is hard. Being great is hard. Pushing for greatness is hard. We\u2019ve got his back but the time is now.<\/p>\n

On top of the discipline, fans and Bills personnel have been critical of Coleman. General manager Brandon Beane wasn\u2019t happy with how he returned from his 2024 injury, and told the media as much in the end-of-year press conference. His production on the field has been lacking, as well.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if Coleman learns from this and steps up or continues to wilt under the bright lights of the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott benched second-year wide receiver Keon Coleman on Sunday, making him a healthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[56750,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-288908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-buffalo-bills-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}