Phoenix, Arizona (WGR) - When Joe Brady was hired to succeed Sean McDermott as head coach of the Buffalo Bills he said he told Keon Coleman that "the best thing to happen to you is me being your head coach".
That was after a tumultuous second season for the wide receiver, who had been benched for parts of games, and even a full game, for being late to practices and meetings.
On Tuesday, at the NFL league meetings here in Phoenix, Brady continued to show faith in Coleman.
"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, and I know I'm talking about his personal, but if he just takes care of himself off the field, and he just shows up, he's gonna be good to go," Brady said.
"The growth that Keon's gonna have from this year to next, like, Keon is on our football team. I've never said anything negative. I was the first to tell everybody I wanted Keon Coleman, so Keon's not going to just be pushed aside, he's going to continue to develop and (wide receivers coach) Drew Terrell will have 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."
While speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, general manager and President of Football Operations Brandon Beane said Coleman had an excellent offseason a year ago, and needs to do that again, but make sure the off-field maturity issues he's had don't continue and impact the work he puts in like they did last year.
"We're in constant communication with him," Brady said, who added Coleman's personality and work ethic reminds him of the receivers he coached at LSU, which included Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.
"It's just about now, just making sure I'm there, doing what I have to do so I can go out on the football field and do my thing."
Wide receiver enters year three with Bills
