Keon Coleman's Maturity Discussed By Bills' Brandon Beane Ahead of 2026 NFL Season

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.

"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—like the light has come on, he understands some of the things he could've done better along the way," Beane told reporters Wednesday. 

"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—was 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."

"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—a much harder play—and he makes it."

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.

What's more, he was a healthy scratch for multiple games and fell down the depth chart at times. 

As if that wasn't enough, the spotlight was dialed up even more when team owner Terry Pegula blamed fired coach Sean McDermott for the decision to draft Coleman during his defense of Beane.

"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—whatever 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.

"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."

Coleman knows how important this season will be for his overall NFL outlook and told reporters in May, "for me, it's make or break. If you s---, you might not be here, simple as that. I know what I'm capable of. So, if I fall anything short of that, I'm doing myself a disservice and my team."

It seems as if he is off to an ideal start at training camp as the Bills prepare for their Sept. 13 opener against the Houston Texans.