Any one of these three players would immediately cover a gap left by the departure of a costly veteran this summer.
The Buffalo Bills have some serious holes in their roster for the first time in a number of years as they head into the 2024 NFL Draft.
General manager Brandon Beane is under greater pressure than ever to make the correct decisions in April after cutting some expensive veterans off their roster to stay under the salary cap and allowing some key players to leave in free agency.
In his first selection, Beane took Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds, two multi-time Pro Bowlers, in Round 1 after hitting a home run. Since then, though, he’s only selected two players in five years to the Pro Bowl (Dawson Knox and James Cooks), and Knox was a substitute for the position, so it’s questionable if the selection even matters. Neither of them was selected in the first round.
Since taking Allen and Edmunds, Beane’s first-round picks have been defensive tackle Ed Oliver, defensive end Gregory Rousseau, cornerback Kaiir Elam, and tight end Dalton Kincaid. Oliver, Rousseau, and Kincaid are all key starters and still have some Pro Bowl-caliber upside, but Elam seems like a bust. The CB was injured a bit last season but was also a healthy scratch five times.
Then, there is the 2020 NFL Draft when the Bills didn’t have a first-round pick. The team desperately needed a WR1 for Allen, so they traded that selection to the Minnesota Vikings for Stefon Diggs. That worked out (almost) perfectly for the Bills, except for the small fact that the Vikings drafted Justin Jefferson with that exact pick.
Nonetheless, the Bills have one of the league’s most full teams since then, so need-based draft selections weren’t as important. But Buffalo has some serious gaps to fill after losing center Mitch Morse, All-Pro CB Tre’Davious White, wide receiver Gabe Davis, and defensive captains Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
In light of that, the Bills’ first-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft has three choices.
WR Keon Coleman, Florida State
Bills Mafia had big hopes for Gabe Davis following his epic eight-catch, 201-yard, four-touchdown performance in the team’s infamous “13-seconds” loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2021 playoffs. However, after failing to reach even 850 receiving yards in the past two seasons, Buffalo let him sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.
The Bills must now identify a reliable WR2 and a possible WR1 successor to the 30-year-old Diggs. Additionally, Diggs’ rise to WR1 could happen sooner than anticipated if the Bills do select a wideout this year at No. 28, as he is already up to his old tricks with his yearly attention-seeking conduct on social media.
Diggs and Khalil Shakir can split things up at the Z and slot WR positions, but the Bills could utilize a large, physical, single-coverage-beating X receiver to hold down one side of the offense if Diggs plays in Buffalo this coming season.
At 6-foot-3 and 216 pounds, Coleman resembles the standard NFL wide receiver. You would believe he would be in the running for one of the top wide receiver spots in this selection just by watching the footage of his greatest work from Florida State. On the other hand, he faces two obstacles.
