Keon Coleman's performance needs to match his energetic personality

We all saw the vivacious personality of rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman when the Bills picked him with the first choice in the second round of the NFL Draft.

Bills Mafia ate all of that up, and so did general manager Brandon Beane.

“I didn’t know he was as funny as he is,” Beane said the other day. “I’ve had more texts from people all over the country that I don’t talk to - ‘I don’t know how good your guy is, but I sure love watching his interviews.’ I’m like, ‘Well, hopefully his game matches his interviews.’”

Ding, ding, ding. Coleman might already be a fan favorite, but winning over the fans is pretty much the last thing he needs to do while the Bills are at St. John Fisher University, and then later at One Bills Drive as they prepare for the regular season.

Now the rubber hits the road and Coleman has to prove he can be a reliable weapon for Josh Allen in a Buffalo offense that is reinventing itself in the passing game because of all the new faces.

“He’s smart, he works hard, he’s competitive, and I think he will bring a physical element,” Beane said, turning the conversation back to football. “He’s got size, I think that will be a part of his game. I know they’ve been working a lot, even at the end of OTAs, red zone stuff, fade balls. Obviously he’ll have some chances to win on third-and-5, a slant or whatever route Josh and Joe (Brady) dial up. Hopefully as the pads come on, we see some of that.”

The pads are expected to go on Sunday or Monday, but so far, Coleman has held his own and has been getting most of his reps with Allen on the first team.

“I think you can see the work that he put in the last month,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said, referring to the time between mini camp and training camp. “It was important to him not just to get away and enjoy summer, he took it upon himself to make sure he’s still working on his craft. So it’s just a matter of consistency and you can have one day but can you follow it up and I think that’s what you’ve got to do to be a great receiver, great player.”

On the first day of camp, the Bills worked heavily on red zone offense and the receivers dominated, including Coleman who caught one TD and would have had a second if he hadn’t stepped on the back line of the end zone.

“Keon was making big boy plays down in the red zone and making plays today,” fellow receiver Khalil Shakir said after the second day of practice.

Here are some other things that have been said across the first three days of training camp.

▶ Offensive coordinator Joe Brady is fine with James Cook's heavy workload.

I asked Brady whether he needs to be mindful of Cook’s usage this season after Cook had more than 300 touches including the postseason in 2023, way more than he’s ever had in one season probably dating back to high school.

Brady said he’s not worried because Cook was underused during his time at Georgia, and he said as that relates to the Bills, “I think that’s a benefit, especially in college when they don’t have a crazy workload because that’s wear and tear on your body.”

That’s partially why Brady believes Cook can handle the workload, but another reason is that Cook worked on his strength and conditioning in the offseason. “You look at Jimbo, he looks different,” Brady said. “He’s stronger, he’s more put together. You can tell he put in a lot of work. It’s important to him and so I’m excited to see him continue to evolve and get better.”

▶ Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich has the players’ attention.

When you watch Babich on the field, what strikes you is his energy, such a stark contrast to the quiet nature of former defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, and even McDermott who is far more reserved, at least from what we see during practice.

“I think anytime you have that extra energy, the juice, and just his passion, it just flows into us,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “He’s the leader of the defense in a way and I think what he brings is his personality and just his football mind and his love for the game is something we can feed off of every single day.”

McDermott remains unwilling to announce whether he or Babich would call the defensive plays this season, though I really don’t think it matters. Babich is a terrific coach, the players love him, and even if he’s not calling the plays, he’s going to have a huge role in game-planning and also what the Bills do on game day.

▶ Babich loves what defensive end Dawuane Smoot has shown so far.

The Bills signed Smoot as a free agent and the former third-round pick who spent the first seven years of his NFL career with the Jaguars has made a big impression both on and off the field.

“Dawuane Smoot has been awesome, man, he’s been awesome,” Babich said. “He brings an edge to the game of football, for lack of a better term, he’s got that old school edge. I’m excited to see Dawuane when we get the pads on, he’s been incredible.

“Met him and his wife - his wife had come after he signed - and they’re an absolute great family. Great person, absolute professional, cares about the guys around him. He’s a great teammate and I’m excited to see what he can bring for us. He’s got work to do to just like everybody else does, but Dawuane has been a great addition to us.

Smoot is 29, so the impact he has should probably be tempered. After recording 22.5 sacks between 2019-22, he made only one last year as he missed five games due to injury. He’s nothing more than a rotation piece at this point behind Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa and Von Miller, and has heavy competition in another free agent signee from the Commanders, Casey Toohill, plus rookie fifth-round pick Javon Solomon and returning Bills Kingsley Jonathan and Kameron Cline.

▶ Dalton Kincaid is trying not to listen to the hype.

Now that Stefon Diggs is gone, the belief is that the passing game will operate through the second-year tight end, similar to the way the Chiefs go through Travis Kelce.

Obviously, there’s no comparison between Kelce and Kincaid, but the bottom line is that Kincaid is going to be a hugely important cog in this offense and he needs to build on a promising rookie season. However, he’s not willing to admit that will be the case.

“I don’t really tend to look at the outside noise,” Kincaid said. “That’s something we preach a lot on this team. I’m just out there to do my job and catch the ball when it’s thrown my way. Our saying is everybody eats on this offense and everybody is going to eat. So if it’s a game I catch 10 passes, awesome, if it’s a game I catch zero passes it’s awesome as long as we’re winning.”

Suffice it to say, Kincaid can’t have any zero-catch games. And when he does catch the ball, he needs to start biting off bigger chunks of yardage because last season, the majority of his targets - 74.4% to be exect - came either behind the line of scrimmage or between 0 and 9 yards from the line.

He caught 65 such passes on 75 targets and his average gain was just 7.3 yards with no touchdowns, an indication that he was not used at all in the red zone. He caught only four passes that resulted in a gain of at least 20 yards, and two of those resulted in touchdowns.

“Right now we’re kind of in the process of just trying to see what all of our guys can do,” Brady said. “Just seeing Dalton do some things going vertical, we saw that he can do that last year and so something that I hope for all of our guys, you know, that’s a part of the repertoire.”

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Keon Coleman's performance needs to match his energetic personality