Buffalo Bills’ newest draft class hit the practice field for the first time this week — including the headliner of the group, wide receiver Keon Coleman.
The club’s first of two 2nd round draft picks wore the No. 0 jersey as he donned the Bills helmet in an emotional realization that he’s made it to the NFL.
“A bunch of jitters. I called my brother. It’s exciting. The moment gets downplayed because the process is so long,” Coleman said after practice Friday. “I think once I grabbed the helmet and put it on it shifted me back to real life, like this is a reality now
The 6’3” wideout at Florida State made quite a first impression when he arrived in Buffalo a couple weeks ago after the draft with several viral moments from his press conference.
Now, with the draft process and all of that behind him — it’s time to focus on football.
“All the other stuff that’s cool and all but the main thing is the main thing: trying to better on the football field, learn the playbook and impact the team and try to help win,” Coleman said. “That’s what I’m focused on, that’s what I really care about, so it’s great to get back to it.”
Coleman has been working with the coaching staff to speed up the learning process as he jumps into the Bills offensive playbook, which he says is vastly different from what they ran at Florida State, but more similar to the offense Michigan State ran while Coleman played there.
“Been Zooming the past week or so and just breaking it down into pieces, understand the terminology, and within each play what they’re trying to get done, what’s the reads,” Coleman said. “That makes it very simple because there’s only so many concepts you can run. It’s just the terminology. Once you get that down, and then it’s going to be a lot, but you’ll be able to adjust.”
As Coleman looks to make an impact right away as a rookie, he reached out to one of the Bills all-time greats for advice: Hall-of-Fame wide receiver Andre Reed.