By all accounts, Josh Allen was excited by the Buffalo Bills’ decision to draft wide receiver Keon Coleman.
Buffalo traded down to the first pick of the second round, No. 33 overall, where they took the Florida State star Friday night.
In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Bills general manager Brandon Beane explained Allen’s involvement in the draft process and his feelings about Coleman.
“Josh is crazy about the draft process. He loves it,” Beane said. “If I get a call from Josh in the offseason, it’s usually him seeing somebody on a highlight, running into somebody, throwing with somebody — just something to ask me what I think about this guy. He called me at the Senior Bowl [to ask] what do I think about a couple of guys there. So he loves it.
“He’s been in the building the last couple of weeks now that the offseason program’s started. So we did give him some guys, we said, ‘Hey, sit back with the coaches, y’all watch them together and talk about how you’d use them. I’d like to hear what you see.’ And he liked a lot of the guys, he really did. But Keon was one — I know he liked him a lot, too. And Josh and I didn’t speak Thursday, really. Maybe he stopped by that morning. But that next day, Friday morning, he FaceTimed me — actually I was still at home before I headed in here. And he was like, ‘What are you thinking?’ And I said, ‘Well, barring somebody blowing me away, I’m going to take Keon.’ And he was pretty pumped.”
Coleman, who scored 11 touchdowns for the Seminoles in 2023, told the Bills’ team website that Allen reached out to him directly shortly after he heard his name called.
“He texted me the day of and was like, ‘You’re the guy I want. I watched a lot of receivers and I want to play with you,'” Coleman said. “And I’ve been saying the same thing. I want to play with the guy that wears number 17. I think he’s a great quarterback, one of the best in the league right now and I would love to be catching passes from him. I’m ready for that.”
Coleman joins a Bills receiving corps that also includes Khalil Shakir and Curtis Samuel, as well as Mack Hollins, Andy Isabella, Justin Shorter, KJ Hamler and others.