Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman is well aware that he’s been the subject of much criticism from fans and the media. Coleman was even the subject of some offseason debate about whether ex-coach Sean McDermott deserved blame for wanting to draft him.
But Coleman says the criticism doesn’t matter to him, because it doesn’t come from anyone who’s on the field with him.
“None of them going to come lace them up and try to stand in front of me,” Coleman said, via ESPN. “People are going to say what they want to say. At the end of the day, my job is to come out here, put my cleats on, strap them up and prove my worth here.”
Through two seasons, Coleman’s production -- 67 catches for 960 yards and eight touchdowns -- hasn’t been what the Bills were hoping for when they selected him with the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Coleman sees that changing this year.
“It’s time to put it all together,” Coleman said. "[Outside comments] I don’t really care to hear them. It’s time for me to just put it out there on the field.”
The Bills have made a pair of roster moves on Tuesday.
Per the league’s daily transaction wire, Buffalo has claimed receiver Quentin Skinner off of waivers from the Jets, who let him go off of injured reserve on Monday.
As a corresponding move, the club has released receiver Deven Thompkins.
Skinner entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Kansas last year, appearing in one regular-season game for the Jets. He caught one pass for 10 yards.
Thompkins had joined the Bills in June. He appeared in seven games for the Falcons last season, catching three passes for 27 yards.
Joe Brady has been in the Bills’ building since 2022, working his way up from quarterbacks coach, to offensive coordinator, and now to head coach in 2026.
Running back James Cook has been around for all of Brady’s rise over the past four seasons, with Brady calling the plays that helped Cook become the league’s rushing champion in 2025.
So what was the offseason program like with Brady as head coach?
“I mean, it’s just a new energy in the building,” Cook said in an interview with NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Tuesday. “It’s going to always be like that, I feel like, when you have a new head coach coming in — a young one, too, at that. I mean, Joe’s a young head coach coming in, his first year being a head coach. I mean, he’s got a new energy. That’s what I feel like.”
But just because there’s an energy shift doesn’t mean Brady is acting inauthentically.
“I mean, to me, nothing has changed,” Cook said. “Joe’s going to be Joe. And, you know, he’s going to be himself. He just wants you to play football and have fun.”
Bills rookies are set to report to training camp on July 21, with Cook and the veterans set to report on July 28.
It was inevitable.
Some NFL team was bound to pounce on the viral moment of a bison tossing a 65-year-old man into the air at Yellowstone National Park. And while it made the most sense for the Bills to incorporate the video into Mr. Brightside, the Bucs were the first NFL team to appropriate Mr. Upside-Down.
The Buccaneers posted on Monday the key portion of the clip, over banjo music, with a cut to receiver Tez Johnson in midair doing a flip after scoring a touchdown.
“Flipping out because it’s almost football season,” the caption declares.
Many were surprised by the aggressive decision to lean into the example of the exploits of an aggressive wild animal. The man, after all, was seriously injured. He reportedly has undergone surgery and is expected to recover.
That doesn’t stop the Bills from fully embracing the video, especially if they’re inclined to bring the man to Buffalo (along with his Dolphins jersey-wearing grandson) to the new stadium for the Week 11 game against Miami.
Eight years into his NFL career, Bills quarterback Josh Allen remains in his prime. But the years tend to roll by quickly. For Allen, who turned 30 in May, 40 will be here in the blink of an eye. And at some point his playing career will end.
When it does, would Allen become a broadcaster?
“I do think it would be cool if you can keep it from a strictly broadcasting angle,” Allen recently told Alex Sherman of CNBC. “When players go from players to journalists and say certain things that they hated people saying about them, I think that’s where it gets a little murky for me.
“But I do think that it would be something I would entertain. I can’t say for sure, ‘yes’ or for sure ‘no’ right now, because I do go back and forth on it. But yeah, I’d have to put some more thought into it.”
First of all, NFL broadcasters aren’t really journalists. (Then again, plenty of NFL journalists aren’t really “journalists.”) His job as a game analyst wouldn’t be to find out things “they” don’t want us to know or to ask hard questions, but to help explain what’s happening on the field.
Second, it’s possible to be critical without being unfair. Allen’s experience and knowledge will equip him to explain what’s happening during the game, and to walk the line between analysis and criticism.
The key is to criticize the play without criticizing the player. There’s a skill to it. Say what needs to be said, without saying too much. The audience can complete the thought, if the thought is one that points to a player making a mistake or not giving enough effort or otherwise doing something less than ideal that deserves to be mentioned.
Third, it pays really well — if you can snatch one of the prime spots. There aren’t many of them. If that kind of opportunity knocks for Allen, it would be hard to say no, especially since it’s the best way to remain close to the game he loves.
