Bills owner Terry Pegula claimed today that wide receiver Keon Coleman, Buffalo’s disappointing second-round pick in 2024, was a draft pick General Manager Brandon Beane went along with only because the coaching staff wanted him.
One problem with Pegula’s claim: The Bills themselves published video evidence that says otherwise.
A YouTube video released by the Bills after the 2024 draft shows how much Beane liked Coleman, with Beane saying repeatedly that he wanted Coleman on the Bills.
It started at the Scouting Combine, when Coleman met with the Bills’ staff and Beane came away impressed with him as both a player and a person.
“You’re smart, you know ball, and you’re quite a character,” Beane said after that meeting.
Then, on the field at the Combine, Coleman ran a slower-than-expected 40 time. When two Bills staffers pointed it out, Beane dismissed it as any kind of concern and said he hoped it would make Coleman drop on other teams’ draft boards so the Bills would have a better chance at him.
“I’m glad he ran that,” Beane said of Coleman’s slow 40. “It’ll help to get him.”
The Bills used the first pick on the second day of the draft on Coleman, which means they had all day to trade down if they had wanted to. Beane, however, said he knew when he went to bed after the first day of the draft that he was going to keep the pick and draft Coleman unless the Bills had received some kind of extraordinary trade offer.
“When I went to bed that night it was like it’s Keon unless someone just blows us away. We didn’t feel anything was attractive enough for us to pass up on Keon,” Beane said.
Pegula and Beane may want to blame former head coach Sean McDermott for the decision to draft Coleman, which in hindsight looks like a mistake. But at the time, Beane couldn’t have been more clear that Coleman was the guy he wanted in Buffalo.
