Brandon Beane talks Bills 2026 NFL Draft, Keon Coleman, Greg Rousseau at OLB and more
Beane also gave clues about what the defensive end and linebacker groups might look like going forward.
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Bills general manager Brandon Beane reiterated his belief in wide receiver Keon Coleman.
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The 2026 NFL Draft is a little over one week away, and with it, the Buffalo Bills will attempt to find pieces to help put them over the top for a Super Bowl run.
As the clock winds down toward the draft, The Athletic sat down with GM Brandon Beane to discuss several pieces of the team’s roster ahead of the last major offseason event in 2026.
Here’s what stood out, and what it could mean for the Bills’ draft.
The Bills’ belief in Keon Coleman: “It’s not all talk.”
After a great end to training camp and a huge Week 1 performance, things began to worsen for Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman, who was benched for tardiness again as he drifted down the depth chart. Then it ended with a thud during owner Terry Pegula’s defense of Beane, claiming the GM was being a team player by drafting Coleman at the coaching staff’s request, making many wonder if there was a future for the receiver in Buffalo.Since that time, the temperature has cooled, and every time Coleman has been brought up, Beane, head coach Joe Brady and quarterback Josh Allen have made a point of stressing their belief in Coleman’s talent and fit. Some have seen it as damage control, but there are ways to do so without going to the lengths the Bills have gone to defend their belief in the receiver.
Beane quadrupled down on all the team’s offseason commentary on Coleman after the season-ending press conference took place.
“It’s not all talk,” Beane told The Athletic. “I think Keon understands what he can control and what he can’t, and we all mature at different times. It’s not an ability thing with him. I think he’s shown plenty when he’s been dialed in and connected with the quarterback and the play call and everyone, all is one. But when you let the stuff that occurred off the field, that then affects what your opportunities are on the field.”
“Listen, he has to go do it, but I think we feel confident that the maturity level is heading where it needs to. Again, he’s got to go do it. We believe in the skill set, and that’s part of what your culture is. We all grow at different times; none of us were a made product at 21, 22. Do you wish you had to go through that with him? No, you don’t. But you hope for us, and for him, he looks back and says, ‘That was the best thing that happened to me.’ That’s what you hope. And we’re putting all our eggs in his basket to come back for year three and be a part of this group, however that is.”
Having listened to and attempted to decipher what Beane has said for nearly a decade, there is a clear difference between him answering a question about a player or situation to get through it and going out of his way to defend a player he believes in. This situation really sounds and reads like the latter.
If you’re looking for another example of this, the run-up to the 2023 NFL Draft is a great place to start. In that offseason, right tackle Spencer Brown was heading into his third season and had just had two injury-marred and inconsistent campaigns to begin his career. Many outside the organization wanted the Bills to address the position with their first-round pick that year, but Beane and then-head coach Sean McDermott’s consistent, defiant pushback and belief in Brown carried through. The Bills didn’t select an offensive tackle that year.
In another striking similarity to the conversation around Brown in 2023, the Bills stopped short of saying they were locking him in as a starter, preferring to let the right tackle earn his opportunities rather than hand them to him. That’s part of the Coleman playbook here, too.
“Bringing DJ [Moore] in brings competition in. Josh Palmer got banged up last year. Hopefully, year two goes better for him, but it’ll sort itself out,” Beane said to The Athletic. “I think [Coleman] knows he’s got to come in and earn every single thing he’s gonna get. He’s got to fight to see if he can start. And if he doesn’t, then he’s going to have to still prove that he’s the next guy off the bench if he’s not a starter.”
All this isn’t to say that Coleman, who turns 23 in May, is on the precipice of turning his career around to the degree that Brown did. Still, the more important part is the organization’s feeling about the player heading into his third year and the opportunity that could come with it. For that reason, believing that the Bills actually believe in Coleman is the big takeaway.
That, along with the addition of Moore and the second-round draft cost to do so, might do just enough to dissuade the Bills from using their top pick on a receiver. Logically, it would be a lot of draft investment to one position in one offseason, and it remains a clear chance that they avoid the position in the first few rounds altogether because of it. Drafting a receiver in the first round isn’t completely out of the question. However, at the very least, their Coleman belief potentially could make them shy away from one with a similar skill set to his.
Greg Rousseau is slotted to play outside linebacker this season.
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Greg Rousseau’s position is in permanent marker
As the Bills committed to changing their defense with Brady and new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, the one lingering question about their scheme was about Greg Rousseau. Rousseau has the skill set to play outside linebacker or along the line at defensive end in base formations, either at 5-technique (lined up over the offensive tackle’s outside shoulder) or at 4i (over the offensive tackle’s inside shoulder).At the 2026 NFL combine, Beane said it would depend on what they do in the offseason. Now that the vast majority of their moves are done, where does Rousseau fit into their plans?
Beane ended any lingering speculation.
“Yeah, I think he’ll be on the outside ‘backer. You’re not gonna see him dropping [into coverage] as much as you would some other guys. But he can still do it enough — he might do it one time a game,” Beane told The Athletic. “Could he go play the 4i? Yeah, he could. I don’t know if you’re getting his value there, to be honest. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t do it. I think he’s versatile enough. Like anything, if we needed him to go do it, if these guys are like, ‘man, you’re the best guy,’ Greg would. But we see him in the outside ‘backer group, not that 3-4, 5-tech, 4i type stuff.”
Part of the Rousseau allure at outside linebacker is likely in his reaction time and short-area ground covering. During his draft year in 2021, Rousseau registered a 10-yard split time of 1.57 seconds, which, according to his Relative Athletic Score chart, is a 98th percentile mark for defensive ends. If Rousseau is going to reach his ceiling, 2026 may be his greatest opportunity to do so as the clear top rusher.
So what does this do to their need at edge rusher, and is it strong enough to warrant a first-round pick? The short answer is yes. Bradley Chubb will be 30 in June, and the Bills can get out of the deal easily after 2027. The group’s overall depth is lacking, and there is also a major question about how effective Michael Hoecht will be in 2026 after tearing his Achilles tendon in late October. Plus, the Bills still lack true speed and bend around the edge in their rushers. There are a lot of those types available in this year’s class.
Even with Rousseau as an outside linebacker exclusively, Beane dropped another quote that could be a clue to how the Bills are thinking about their defensive roster and open a spot at the position to be right in the first-round conversation.
An interesting DL/LB clue, but who does it pertain to?
In the middle of talking about all of the options they have with their defensive linemen, Beane gave this morsel of information right at the end:“When we show up to training camp, who are the group of now linebackers plus D-linemen? Considering that most of our old D-ends are now gonna be outside backers.”
The clue here is “most of” their 2025 defensive ends are going to be outside linebackers, not all of them. That could be a sneaky factor as to how they are looking at their 2026 roster at this point.
So the big question is this: which of their defensive ends in 2025 isn’t making the switch to outside linebacker?
We now know that Rousseau is an outside linebacker only, with Beane squashing any other notion. The same goes for the newly signed Chubb. Special teams player Javon Solomon has been mentioned in the past as more of an outside linebacker type, but he’s a fringe roster player as of now. That leaves only Hoecht and 2025 third-round pick Landon Jackson.
Using context clues, skill sets and general roster-building logic, it would make the most sense for Jackson, not Hoecht, to remain with the defensive line group. Hoecht provided much more as a rusher last season, and that likely plays a role. However, when you dig deeper, it really makes a lot of sense for Jackson.
Jackson is a power-based rusher with a huge wingspan. He weighed 264 pounds in 2025, but appears to have the frame to add more weight. He wasn’t much of a factor as an edge rusher as a rookie during training camp and in limited opportunities during the season. However, in terms of holding his ground and defending the run, those were sterling areas of his scouting report coming out of Arkansas. All of those attributes would make him an ideal prospect to develop as an odd-man front defensive end at five-technique or the 4i position.
On top of that, the Bills favor a great first step out of their edge rushers, and Jackson’s 10-yard split time (1.65 seconds) puts him more in the average category. He’s also a bit of a stiff mover, so the idea of him quickly getting around the edge or dropping into coverage is a bit of a tougher sell than Hoecht and all the others, as Hoecht has done it before with the Rams. And for what it’s worth, of all the defensive ends from 2025, as of Tuesday morning, Jackson is the only one still listed as “DE,” and has not been switched to “OLB” on the roster on the team’s website.
This seems like a potentially solid clean slate for Jackson, whose 2025 season was lost to injury. Before it, he was buried on the depth chart and a healthy scratch on game days early in the year. Defensive end in the new scheme may better suit his skills rather than being forced into an outside linebacker role that may not be as good a fit. The Bills have multiple years to develop Jackson into this role, and there is even a path towards playing time as early as this season if all goes well.
That’s a big “if,” however, because he could be contending with Ed Oliver, Deone Walker and T.J. Sanders at least for playing time, especially when the Broncos, Leonhard’s last team, used three defensive linemen only 38 percent of their snaps in 2025. Regardless, if that’s their plan, it’s a much better path to Jackson being consistently roster-relevant, staying on the 53-man roster and even resetting the clock on him becoming something for them in the future.
What position for Jordan Hancock? Bills will have to wait to figure it out
When the Bills drafted defensive back Jordan Hancock in the fifth round last year, they left the door open for him to be either a nickel or a safety in their scheme. As camp and the regular season went on, it was clear that Hancock was a pleasant surprise and eventually worked into a minor contributing role on defense. He mostly settled in at safety, but as we know, it’s a new coaching staff and a new defense. So, where does he fit with Leonhard?The answer is yet to be determined, and the Bills may not have it for some time. Beane revealed to The Athletic that Hancock underwent offseason shoulder surgery and is rehabbing. If Hancock’s timeline keeps him out for some of the spring workouts, that will make it a bit more difficult to figure out his positional home before training camp and a plan for him heading into camp.
Beane mentioned a lot of it could depend on the numbers at cornerback and safety. Nickel is the more logical option for Hancock based on current numbers, but things could always change after the draft with picks and signings. Beane said they love the defensive back’s versatility, and that “he’ll get soaked in both” nickel and safety when he’s cleared to resume football activities, but until then, it’s a wait-and-see situation.