The Athletic: Bills offense shines despite Keon Coleman being benched again: ‘It’s time for him to grow up’
The second-year player earned the third benching of his career on Sunday.
www.nytimes.com
Keon Coleman of the Buffalo Bills walks to the field prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Highmark Stadium.
Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y — The Buffalo Bills might need Keon Coleman someday.
Then again, they might never need the sophomore receiver. They certainly can do without his unprofessional behavior, his questionable effort and his pedestrian production.
Sunday in Highmark Stadium, with Coleman in street clothes on the sideline, his mates rollicked in a 44-32 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Coleman didn’t play because he keeps using the Bills’ code of conduct as a Kleenex. For the third time in only 26 NFL games, coach Sean McDermott benched him for showing up late to work. Three days before a crucial game for which everyone should’ve been laser-focused, Coleman was tardy for a team meeting.
Coleman isn’t a rookie anymore, but he’s a long way from being a true pro.
At least he didn’t dodge reporters after the game. His answers were short and far from illuminating, but he fielded all the questions.
“Mistakes happen. Things happen,” Coleman said in the Highmark Stadium tunnel after the game. “But I’ve got to be better.”
Asked when he learned he wouldn’t play, Coleman replied, “I knew that (right away). S—, you can’t keep making those types of mistakes in your profession.”
Inside the Bills’ locker room, his teammates were supportive. But left tackle Dion Dawkins made it clear that this better be the last time Coleman makes this mind-boggling error. Dawkins said he has Coleman’s back, stressed nobody is perfect and advised him to use yet another punishment as a growth opportunity.
“Now he’s in the hot seat,” Dawkins said, “and he needs to come on and show up for us. Pats on the back are over with, and it’s time for him to grow up, and he knows it.”
The organization has stood by Coleman plenty. McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane staked a healthy portion of this year’s passing-game fortunes on Coleman’s expected evolution. Hall of Fame receiver Andre Reed declared recently that Coleman’s time will come.
But just on Monday, McDermott was asked about Coleman’s play-to-play effort in last week’s ugly loss to the Miami Dolphins — a question McDermott called “fair,” but then expressed Coleman was on the right track. Coleman caught a garbage-time touchdown pass, but also looked like he might’ve been going through the motions on a few snaps. That’s not the reason he was benched, though. He was supposed to play against the Buccaneers until he arrived late Friday and forced McDermott’s hand.
Based on the brash indifference Coleman has displayed to his coaches, his teammates and the fans, it’s not out of bounds to wonder if he considered his deactivation a pleasant turn of events. He got to wear a hoodie under a warm parka on the sideline, dapping up his dudes through his thick gloves. Nice and cozy.
Coleman had a sensational spot to
watch Josh Allen make history. Allen became the first player in NFL history to twice throw for three touchdowns and run for three touchdowns in a game. Allen broke Cam Newton’s record for career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback and Peyton Manning’s record for combined touchdowns before turning 30.
Allen
used nine targets while pushing Buffalo to 44 points on its first 50 plays.
Fringe receiver Tyrell Shavers caught four passes for 90 yards (both team-highs), including a 43-yard lightning bolt into the end zone in the second quarter. With 36 seconds until halftime, Shavers made a marvelous block to help spring running back Ty Johnson’s screen for a 52-yard touchdown. Running back James Cook, seldom used in the passing game this year, made three receptions for 66 yards, including a 25-yard TD. Old friend Gabe Davis grabbed three for 40 yards in his first game in a year.
Sean McDermott said he believes Keon Coleman will learn from his latest benching.Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images
You’d think it would be difficult for a competitor to not be allowed to join in the spree, especially when catches, yards and TDs have been so hard to come by for Coleman.
“I wouldn’t say it was difficult,” Coleman said. “It’s 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.”
A teammate who’s thriving is a member of Coleman’s 2024 draft class. Bills safety Cole Bishop also was drafted in the second round and experienced a turbulent rookie season. Bishop on Sunday snagged an interception in his second straight game. Three games ago, he broke up four Patrick Mahomes passes to help beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Bishop leads Buffalo in tackles and interceptions. He’s the NFL’s only player with at least 50 tackles, three interceptions and two sacks.
“He’s playing super confidently, flying around,” McDermott said. “He understands where he’s supposed to be, when he’s supposed to be there. You’re talking a player in the middle of his second year … It’s how a player develops. You want him to be great coming out of the box, but it just takes time sometimes for these guys.”
Bishop found another gear last month as former starting safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin suffered injuries. Buffalo added former captain Jordan Poyer to bolster its backstops, and although the veteran’s wisdom has supplemented Bishop’s maturation, the biggest reasons kindle within.
“I get a chance to see different times that people can come in, and he’s one of the first ones in there and one of the last to leave every day,” McDermott said of Bishop. “So he invests time, and usually — it may not happen right away — you see the fruits of your labor.”
Players such as Bishop are self-starters. Others might need their hands held.
But McDermott’s office is at One Bills Drive, not on Sesame Street.
McDermott benched Coleman last year for disciplinary reasons, and in Week 5 had to do it again. Coleman wasn’t allowed to play the first offensive series in a 23-20 defeat to the New England Patriots. The Bills were disjointed from the jump that night. Coleman missed only six plays, but the opening possession was reflective of what Allen called “sloppy” and “bad football” and “piss-poor offense.”
Allen not having his most popular target (through the first four games anyway; trust has since eroded) contributed to the disastrous start. Coleman entered on Buffalo’s second possession. Allen threw to him twice. The first pass would have been a difficult, back-shoulder catch, but Coleman got his hands on it. The second was a contested deep ball you’d like to see Coleman come down with. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound former Michigan State basketball player was drafted largely for his ability to make such plays, but flailed helplessly versus 5-foot-8, 188-pound nickelback Marcus Jones.
Coleman caught his third target and fumbled it away on Buffalo’s 10-yard line, gifting New England a free field goal in a three-point game.
McDermott, the next day, acknowledged Coleman “has shown growth this year.”
If that’s the case, then how truly immature was the player they drafted 33rd overall almost two years ago?
The Bills that spring originally owned the 28th pick, but traded back with the Chiefs. Their postseason rivals selected speedster Xavier Worthy, a bona fide game-changer last year as a receiver and runner, who led the NFL postseason with 19 catches for 287 yards and three touchdowns. One slot after the Bills selected Coleman, the Los Angeles Chargers took Ladd McConkey. All he did was catch 82 passes for 1,149 yards and seven TDs, and then in his playoff game had nine receptions for 197 yards and a TD.
Coleman last year did not distinguish himself on a roster in which Mack Hollins led the team with five whole receiving touchdowns.
It was just Coleman’s third NFL game when McDermott benched him the entire first quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars for being late to a team meeting. Coleman last year posted 29 catches for 556 yards and four TDs while missing four games in November and December with a wrist injury.
Beane, after the season, was critical of how Coleman failed to surmount the injury. Over his last seven games, including playoffs, Coleman finished two games with more than one reception. In three playoff games, he totaled three receptions on eight targets for 22 yards.
“I would say I was probably a little disappointed in the return from the injury,” Beane said at the time. “I did not see the same player down the stretch from a physicality … some of the things he needs to use, his size. Some of that is youth. … I wish he had finished the season stronger, but we had honest, direct conversations with Keon.”
This year, Coleman has 32 catches for 330 yards and three touchdowns while playing 71 percent of the snaps through nine games.
Tight end Dalton Kincaid was similarly checked by Beane for not meeting expectations and not being in better NFL shape for a second-year player.
Kincaid seems to have digested that constructive criticism. He missed Sunday with a hamstring injury but has been Allen’s most explosive target with 29 receptions, 448 yards and four touchdowns despite playing only 42 percent of the offensive snaps.
Over these past three months, Kincaid has forged a deeper trust with Allen and offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Coleman, meanwhile, continues to show unreliable tendencies.
“I believe he will learn from it,” McDermott said of Coleman’s latest benching. “He takes it seriously, and he will move forward in a way of growing from this. That’s the whole goal.”
Coleman said he didn’t know whether he would play Thursday night against the Houston Texans in NRG Stadium.
Given how well the offense played without him, McDermott didn’t want to talk about when the young receiver might earn his way back onto the field.
McDermott might as well wait to see if Coleman shows up for Wednesday’s flight to Houston before making a decision.
