How rookie WR Keon Coleman is learning Bills 'different' offensive playbook

Buffalo Bills rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman shares insight on how he's internalizing his new team's offensive playbook.

Dec 2, 2023; Charlotte, NC, USA; Florida State Seminoles wide receiver Keon Coleman (4) makes a / Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The life of an NFL rookie is a whirlwind; from the minutiae of learning a new playbook to the more all-encompassing alterations such as learning a bevy of new faces and an entire new region of the country, the weeks immediately following a prospect’s selection is a time of great change.

And to wade through the storm, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman is falling back on something familiar.

He’s relying on his previously established techniques to learn his new team’s offensive playbook, internalizing the philosophy by using the same methods he used to understand the playbooks at both Michigan State and Florida State. Though he described Buffalo’s offensive playbook as “a lot different” to that of the Seminoles (saying it’s more akin to that of Michigan State), he admitted that football, ultimately, is football; differences from playbook to playbook more often manifest as variances in terminology as opposed to variances in concepts.

“It’s been pretty smooth,” Coleman told local media after Friday’s rookie minicamp practice. “[Wide receivers] coach [Adam] Henry, he’s been helping me a lot, we’ve been Zooming the past week or so and just breaking it down into pieces [to] understand the terminology, and within each play, what they’re trying to get done, what’s the reads. 

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“That makes it very, very simple, because there are only so many concepts you can run, it’s just the terminology. Once you get that down, there’s going to be a lot, but you’re going to be able to adjust.”

He takes a multimedia approach to learning the plays themselves, drawing them after watching them on film to gain a deeper understanding. It’s a technique he developed midway through his freshman year at East Lansing, setting the stage for his breakout sophomore campaign in which he caught 58 passes for 798 yards and seven touchdowns.

“With the film, with the actual plays, with the lines and stuff, it’s plays, live footage behind it on your tablet, I like to draw it out, take the notes, draw it out, and then continue to do it on whiteboards and then quiz myself,” Coleman said. “That’s probably my favorite way to do it.”

Aiding in Coleman’s internalization of the playbook is his already blossoming relationship with offensive coordinator Joe Brady; the rookie has already stated that he has a “great relationship” with his play-caller, their bond taking root thanks to their shared ties to Louisiana (Coleman was born and raised in Opelousas, LA while Brady coached for the New Orleans Saints from 2017–2018 and for the LSU Tigers in 2019). It’s a promising sign for Coleman’s likely significant immediate offensive role; the 20-year-old, who hauled in 11 touchdowns for Florida State last year, projects as Buffalo's ‘X,’ or primary boundary, wide receiver.