Joe Brady replacing Sean McDermott as the head coach of the Bills is the best thing that could have happened to Keon Coleman. The wide receiver has been a disappointment since the Bills used a second-round pick on him in 2024.
However, the Bills continue to have faith that Coleman will grow up and live up to expectations.
“The thing with Keon is from a football standpoint, man, his work ethic, his approach, how he’s going through it, if Keon just takes care of himself off the field and he just shows up, he’s going to be good to go,” Brady said at the owners meetings this week, via Sal Maiorana of the Democrat & Chronicle. “Keon is on our football team. I’ve never said anything negative. I was the first to tell everybody I want Keon Coleman. Keon’s not going to just be pushed aside. He’s going to continue to develop and [receivers coach] Drew Terrell has a great plan of what we’re going to do to be able to get him to be the receiver that we ultimately drafted him to be.”
Coleman’s struggles perhaps trace to his off-the-field problems, including tardiness.
“It’s just about now, just making sure I’m there doing what I have to do so that I can go out on the football field and do my thing,” Brady said. “I think the reality of it is we can’t just coach the players. We have to coach the person. And it’s important that you know, and that’s part of the meetings that I’ve had as a head coach right now is making sure that as the head coach I’m understanding that.”
In two seasons, Coleman has played 26 games, totaling 67 receptions for 960 yards and eight touchdowns.
Free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore announced his retirement on Thursday.
He posted the news on social media.
Gilmore, 35, has not played since 2024 and did not sign with a team last season.
The Bills made him the 10th overall pick in 2012, and he played five seasons with Buffalo, four with New England and one each with Carolina, Indianapolis, Dallas and Minnesota.
He was Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 with the Patriots when he led the league with six interceptions and 20 pass breakups.
In his career, the five-time Pro Bowler totaled 617 tackles, 32 interceptions, 149 pass breakups, eight forced fumbles and a sack.
The Chiefs are adding a former first-round pick to their defense.
Kansas City has agreed to sign cornerback Kaiir Elam, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.
Elam, 24, split last season between the Cowboys and Titans. Buffalo traded him to Dallas at the beginning of the league year in March after his first three seasons with the club. Elam appeared in 10 games with seven starts for Dallas before the Cowboys waived him in November.
He signed with the Titans shortly thereafter and appeared in four games with the club over the rest of the season.
The No. 23 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Elam has appeared in 43 career games with 19 starts. He’s recorded eight passes defensed with two interceptions.
The Chiefs have voids to fill in their secondary after trading Trent McDuffie and losing Jaylen Watson in free agency.
The Bills went into the offseason hoping to upgrade their receiving corps and they made a move to do that when they acquired DJ Moore in a trade with the Bears.
Moore’s production was not the only thing that made him an appealing option in Buffalo. He also played for new Bills head coach Joe Brady when Brady was the offensive coordinator of the Panthers and Brady said this week that “having that opportunity to [coach Moore] again excites me.”
Brady also said that he thinks Moore’s presence is going to enhance the output of players like wide receiver Khalil Shakir and tight end Dalton Kincaid.
“Having a guy like DJ it’s going to help both of them,” Brady said, via the team’s website. "[Defenses] can’t just focus on one particular person. It gives us another layer of somebody on the outside. Khalil and Dalton have attacked a lot of the middle of the field, a lot of the inside zones . . . It was important to get a skill set like DJ, a guy that can stretch it, can win one-on-one, can get the ball in his hands, and he can win on a slant.”
The Bills’ inability to break through in the AFC playoffs with Josh Allen at quarterback was the lead reason why they made a coaching change this offseason. Moore won’t be able to get them over the hump by himself, but his presence is clearly a big part of the plan to make the Brady era more fruitful than the Sean McDermott one.
Tight end Dalton Kincaid is set for at least two more seasons in Buffalo.
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said on Monday that the team has exercised its option on Kincaid’s contract for the 2027 season. Kincaid is now set to make $8.162 million for his fifth NFL season.
Kincaid was the 25th overall pick in 2023. He had 73 catches as a rookie and has added 83 catches over the last two seasons. He has 1,692 yards and nine touchdowns over all 41 regular season games he’s played for the AFC East club.
The Bills also have Dawson Knox under contract at tight end through the 2028 season.
