The Bills may finally be figuring out the cleanest way to get Keon Coleman involved, and the early returns say they should not mess with it.
Coleman’s Week 4 line against the Patriots - 116 receiving yards in a loss - was the second-biggest yardage game of his NFL career. The only bigger outing came in 2024, when he went for 134 yards in a 34-10 win over the Titans at home.
That kind of production is starting to line up with real progress in the numbers. After four games, Coleman’s yards per route run sits at 2.38, almost twice what it was last season. He has also caught two of his three contested targets in the opening month, which matters for a receiver who has lived in the 30-40% range on contested catches dating back to his 2023 season at Florida State.
The bigger change, though, is how Buffalo is setting him up before and during the route.
Coleman still is not separating at a steady rate, and he is not likely to become a reliable man-coverage winner in the NFL. He has looked a little better off the line against press, but that is not the same thing as becoming a receiver who consistently creates easy separation. What he is doing better now is understanding how to get open - and stay open - against zone coverage.
That is the part that has started to click. He is processing coverage faster.
He appears to understand sooner when he is already open. And he is showing more willingness to use some route creativity to help Josh Allen find him.
Joe Brady has leaned into that by moving Coleman around more than ever. Through four games, Coleman has run 16.5% of his routes from the slot and 6.8% in-line, for a combined 23.3%.
As a rookie, that combined figure was 10.8%. Last season it climbed to 18.7% in the regular season before dropping to 2.4% in the playoffs.
Even when Coleman lines up outside, Brady has found ways to give him easier access. Buffalo has increased the use of tight splits before the snap, giving Coleman a more slot-like setup even when he is technically on the perimeter.
As a rookie and again in 2025, Coleman ran outside routes from reduced splits about 35% of the time. This season, that number has jumped to 50.9%, according to Fantasy Points Data.
That is the point: more room to work, more flexibility in how he attacks the route, and better chances to play to his strengths as a big-bodied target who can threaten the intermediate and deep parts of the field.
The caution for Buffalo is obvious. A 100-yard game does not mean Coleman should suddenly be treated like a traditional X or Z receiver parked near the sideline and asked to beat more man coverage and over-the-top help on a regular basis. He is not there yet.
And he should not be turned into a pure volume receiver, either. As long as DJ Moore is healthy, that does not seem to be the plan.
Buffalo has already tried a version of this with Gabe Davis, and it did not work. The Bills pushed him into a larger pass-game role, and he still could not separate often enough.
Coleman is only 23, and he is clearly improving. His game is sharpening.
Brady seems to understand how to use him. Now the Bills need to keep it that way and resist the urge to overcomplicate it.
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