Keon Coleman deserves better than this. So do Buffalo Bills fans.
Since the start of his NFL career, Keon Coleman has been under a microscope, as all early NFL draft picks are, as a second-year wideout who hasn't blossomed as hoped while catching passes from one of the league's greatest quarterbacks in Josh Allen.
There's another wrinkle to Coleman's story, however, in that the Kansas City Chiefs originally traded up in that same draft class from No. 32 overall to No. 28 in order to take a wide receiver. That player was Xavier Worthy. The Bills then moved down a single spot in a deal with the Carolina Panthers and decided to take another wide receiver at the top of the second round—the pick that was Coleman.
Given the history of Bills-Chiefs moments in recent drafts (and how Kansas City seems to get the better of all of them), from the Patrick Mahomes trade in 2017 to the Trent McDuffie deal in 2022, the Worthy-Coleman comparison has been a common subject for Chiefs Kingdom. Comparing the results of the two receivers has come up on multiple occasions when struggles emerge or injuries arise.
Terry Pegula owns the Bills and yet somehow he's embarrassing his own product.
Now, Bills owner Terry Pegula has taken things too far.
To provide some context, the Bills decided to hit the reset button on the coaching staff and fired Sean McDermott after serving as head coach for a decade. In the process, general manager Brandon Beane somehow earned a promotion to President of Football Operations. The announcement was a head-scratcher on multiple levels, and the responses to Beane's organizational advancement brought out some criticisms. One of those was the Keon Coleman pick.
During a press conference on Wednesday with reporters following the moves, Pegula took things to the next level. It's an effort to defend his decision to elevate Beane, and in doing so, he threw McDermott and company under the bus while also being incredibly unkind and unfair to Coleman.
"Can I interrupt? I’ll address the Keon [Coleman] situation. The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon. I’m not saying wouldn’t have drafted him but he wasn’t his next choice. That was Brandon {Beane] being a team player and taking advice of his coaching staff who felt strongly about the player. He’s taken, for some reason, heat over it and not saying a word about it, but I’m here to tell the true story," said Pegula.
It's important to note that Coleman is only finishing up his second season in the league. He's still under contract with the Bills for the next two years, and there's every reason for Buffalo to want to encourage him to become a stronger part of the offense in that time. Instead, the owner just embarrassed him with a behind-the-scenes draft story that should have never been broadcast in a public setting.
One can only wonder if Coleman is not for long in Buffalo after such a sophomoric display. It's also confusing as to how Pegula ever made enough money to be an NFL owner with such poor decision-making skills on his part. As it stands, things are now very awkward for the Bills going forward, and Coleman is caught up in it.
As for the Chiefs, Worthy's second season wasn't the breakout effort that fans hoped for, but being injured on the third play of the year and playing through other ailments isn't the best way forward. At the very least, the AFC rivals are finding new reasons to flounder on and off the field.