The Bills Should Be Entertaining Trade Offers for Keon Coleman

Coming off one of the most disastrous second professional seasons that we’ve seen from a Buffalo Bills second-round pick, Keon Coleman apparently isn’t going anywhere.

Coleman was benched multiple times during the 2025 campaign, leading to him being phased out of the team’s offensive game plan down the stretch of what was a critical year in Orchard Park. After the Bills’ latest failed pursuit of a Super Bowl, the team fired former head coach Sean McDermott while moving on from several other players and coaches as they hope to reset for the ’26 season.

Despite the utter failure that was Coleman’s sophomore campaign in the NFL, Brandon Beane expects Bills fans to believe the team has elected to ignore possible trade offers involving the 22-year-old.

“We had some people connect with us [during the NFL Scouting Combine], at least one team there and a couple between there and the owners meetings, but we shut those down,” said Beane on WGR 550, who added that the Bills didn’t receive any calls on Coleman during the draft.

“Our intention is for Keon to be here, and so I think the word was kind of out, so no calls this weekend,” added Beane.

That seems bogus. You cannot tell me that if Buffalo received an ample offer for its beleaguered wide receiver, they wouldn’t have taken it and run. And if it turns out they actually did “shut down” reasonable offers for Coleman, that would be a huge mistake.

Instead, the Bills should change course and immediately start entertaining any trade partner interested in his services.

Pipe dreams

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman (0) warms up before the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Highmark Stadium. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

Oftentimes, statements such as Beane’s regarding a potential trade involving Coleman are made publicly for the player’s benefit, in an effort to spur their confidence rather than represent the true dire circumstances the player and team face. Think about it: what team in their right mind would want to offer up a meaningful trade package for a player with about as little value as you could imagine? The answer is no team.

Not even the Jets would be ill-advised enough to move assets for a player facing the circumstances Coleman is entering his third year in the league. Maybe if Beane could trade with himself, the savvy tradesman he has proven to be throughout his career [eye roll], he would have the opportunity to unload his biggest bust since his first draft as Bills general manager in 2018. But no such luck.

I previously wrote about a few potential trade scenarios for the Bills involving Coleman, predraft or even during the draft. But in the end, those all were pipe-dream scenarios, as it turned out to be clear—no team was going to offer Buffalo anything worth considering for a broken player who is in desperate need of both an attitude adjustment and a change in setting.

If the Bills received such an offer, even if it were for peanuts, they would have taken it and run. The problem here was that no one was offering peanuts.

Brandon Beane, general manager of then Buffalo Bills, heads off the field at the end of practice at the Buffalo Bills training camp at St. John Fisher University. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It’s almost laughable how Beane tries to frame the fact that Buffalo didn’t receive a single call for its former second-round pick during the draft as a result of the team’s expressed confidence in him. The reason no one called about Keon Coleman is that he can't get open. Not because of anything the team said or did this offseason to make it seem like they believe Coleman is the second coming of Eric Moulds or Andre Reed.

He finished the year with just 38 receptions and 404 yards receiving, with 20% of his season reception total and 27% of his yardage total in 2025 being recorded during a Week 1 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Beyond that game, Coleman recorded 30 receptions for just 292 yards receiving. Simply atrocious for a player who was pegged as one of the saviors of the team’s wide receiver corps when he was inexplicably drafted at the start of last year's second round.

“We’ve hit the reset button with him, and hopefully the fan base and everyone’s behind him,” said Beane.

Fat chance.

Also, a fat chance that other teams would make a legitimate offer to acquire Coleman.

Coleman remains a Buffalo Bill because no other team would want him if it meant parting ways with a worthwhile draft pick. Not because the Bills have feigned their belief in the wide receiver since walking off the field in Denver as an overtime loser this past January.

I’m not buying what Beane and the Bills are selling about Coleman and their belief in him, and neither should you.

Buffalo has backed itself into a corner with its third-year wide receiver, and there’s no way out of the situation the Bills have created. That’s why Coleman is not being traded. Not because Beane is out there beating away trade offers with a baseball bat.

Let's get real.

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