Bills WR Keon Coleman Benched For Today’s Game

It’s no secret that Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman has failed to live up to his draft stock thus far in his young career. A slow rookie campaign with a couple missed games is excusable, but Coleman has noticeably taken a step back in Year 2. According to Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports, Coleman will not play in today’s game against the Buccaneers. It’s supposedly “not performance-based, though, as Schultz relays it to be “a coach’s decision.”

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network provided added context for the healthy scratch, citing Coleman’s tardiness to meetings on Friday morning as the reason for his benching. The team had no plans throughout the week of making him inactive but chose an expensive punishment as a result of repeated issues. Per Rapoport, he was benched for a drive against New England earlier this year and benched for a full quarter against Jacksonville last year.

Coleman came to Buffalo with potential and anticipation but not outrageous production. After a quiet true freshman season at Michigan State, Coleman broke out for the Spartans in his second season of play with 58 catches for 798 yards and seven touchdowns. He capitalized on his big year by transferring to Florida State, where, in a quieter passing attack, he led the Seminoles with 50 receptions for 658 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Despite the lack of eye-popping yardage, those 11 scores in garnet and gold underlined his potential as a big-bodied playmaker. At 6-foot-4, 210 pounds coming out of college, the physical frame was there, but the speed was lacking. Coleman ran an unencouraging 4.61-second 40-yard dash, but the Bills thought he played much faster than his dash time, as evidenced by his demonstration in the gauntlet drill, in which he achieved the fastest top speed of any receiver that year.

Coleman’s numbers as a second-round rookie (57 catches-556 yards-four touchdowns) were not overly impressive, but that is understandable for a rookie who missed four games. MVP quarterback Josh Allen targeted Khalil Shakir and tight end Dalton Kincaid over a third of the time, while Coleman found residual targets in line with fellow receivers Mack Hollins and Curtis Samuel. In Year 2, Allen has made more of an effort to involve Coleman, making him the second most-targeted pass catcher on the team, again behind Shakir, but Coleman has seen his yards per game decrease despite the added attention.

With Coleman out, it will certainly be interesting to see how the Bills make up for Coleman’s absence. After Shakir, Coleman, Kincaid, and running back James Cook, Josh Palmer is the fifth leading receiver with a line of 14-234-0. Elijah Moore (8-115-0) and Tyrell Shavers (7-82-0) are also scoreless, making Samuel (5-62-1) the only member of the receiving corps active for today’s game other than Shakir to score a touchdown this year, and Kincaid has been ruled out with a hamstring injury.

We did see yesterday that Buffalo is calling up some interesting reinforcements. The team used its Saturday transactions to sign Mecole Hardman from the practice squad to the active roster while choosing to elevate Gabe Davis and tight end Keleki Latu as standard gameday practice squad elevations.

Davis was a reliable WR2 for Allen behind Stefon Diggs for four years before flaming out in Jacksonville with disappointing production on a three-year, $39MM contract. After only racking up 239 yards in 10 games, Davis’ season ended with a torn meniscus. The combination of concern for his recovery, Brian Thomas Jr.‘s stellar rookie campaign, and the arrival of No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter led the Jaguars to release Davis after his lone year with the team.

It’s to be determined how Hardman — a role player for years in Kansas City — will fit into the new offense or how much Latu — making his NFL debut after going undrafted out of Washington — will be utilized. The bigger mystery, though, concerns the future of Coleman. A healthy scratch will easily be a low point in his young career, and it will be interesting to follow how he responds to this style of coaching given his response alike punishment in the past.