Bills open second round with wideout
The Bills elected not to trade back in the NFL Draft order for a third time, and addressed their most significant need by selecting Florida State wide receiver Keon Coleman to open the second round Friday in Detroit.
Listed at 6 feet 3 inches and 213 pounds, the 20-year-old Coleman brings size and adept catching ability to a Josh Allen-led offense that traded Stefon Diggs to the Texans earlier this month and lost fourth-year player Gabe Davis to free agency.
In his only season at Florida State, Coleman earned All-ACC honors in leading the Seminoles with 50 catches for 658 yards and 11 touchdowns in 12 games. He earned All-ACC honors and also doubled as a return specialist. Coleman spent his first two college seasons at Michigan State, totaling 65 catches for 848 yards and eight TDs.
The Bills had been on the clock for some 17 hours after trading their way out of the first round with a pair of deals in moving back from having the No.
28th pick to No. 33.
The first trade with the Chiefs led to Buffalo moving back from 28th to 32nd, and drew criticism from the fanbase. General manager Brandon Beane was questioned for helping a conference rival in Kansas City that has eliminated Buffalo in three of the past four playoffs.
Worse still in the eyes of Bills Mafia was the Chiefs using the pick to select Texas receiver Xavier Worthy, who some believed would be a fit with the receiverneedy Bills.
Buffalo then traded back a spot to No. 33 in a deal with the Panthers, a deal in which the Bills moved up 59 spots in the order, swapping their 200th pick for Carolina’s 141st.
“Our board was getting thin as we went down and we just didn’t want to take a chance,” Beane said, acknowledging Coleman was among the few available receivers the Bills had been targeting since moving back from their original No. 28 pick. “Everyone in the draft room kind of knew withdraft out me saying who we wanted today.”
First RB off board
The long wait for the first running back to be drafted ended when the Panthers traded up six spots to take Texas running back Jonathan Brooks with the 46th pick, the second-latest selection for the first running back to go off the board.
The only draft that had a longer wait for a running back came in 2014. Bishop Sankey was the first taken when he went 54th to the Titans that year. The only other time in the common draft era starting in 1967 when no running backs were taken in the first round came two years ago, when Breece Hall was the first taken at No. 36 by the Jets.
Brooks might have gone earlier but he tore his ACL late in the season after rushing for 1,139 yards in 11 games.
The league is coming off the first season since 1990 when no running back carried the ball at least 300 times with Derrick Henry leading the league with 280 for Tennessee. That followed a 2023 offseason when several star running backs failed to generate lucrative long-term contracts as NFL teams dedicate their resources more to the passing game.
Penix, Cousins talk
Michael Penix Jr., the biggest surprise of the NFL Draft’s first round, received a congratulatory call from Kirk Cousins Thursday night even as Cousins’s agent was second-guessing the Falcons adding depth to their quarterback spot.
Penix described the chat with Cousins as “a very good conversation,” but would not say what was discussed.
Penix may have been more excited by Friday’s text message from another lefthanded Falcons quarterback named Michael. In his first news conference in Atlanta after he was the No. 8 overall pick by the Falcons, Penix beamed when talking about his text from Michael Vick.
“I definitely watched him,” said Penix of Vick, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft who played with the Falcons through 2006 before his career was interrupted by dog-fighting charges and a prison term. “He was my favorite quarterback. I had the Vick cleats and all as a kid . . . . I’m glad I’m old enough to have been able to see that era.”
Penix cautioned Falcons fans to not expect him to share the dynamic Vick’s speed as a runner.
“I’m not going to say me and his games are the same,” Penix said. “He did a lot of creating. I feel like we both throw the ball very well . . . . I think people see him create plays and forget he had a cannon. He flicked the ball like it was effortless.”
Guardians caps in play
The NFL announced Friday it will allow players to wear protective soft-shell helmet covers known as Guardian caps during games next season if they choose.
The league is also expanding the use of the devices during practices. Defensive backs and receivers have joined the position groups now required to wear the caps during all contact practices.
The NFL has mandated the caps’ use at practices for some players since 2022. Quarterbacks, kickers, and punters are the only remaining position groups not required to wear them during practice. No players will be required to wear the Guardian caps during games.
“We’ve got two years of data now showing significant concussion reductions in those players that wear Guardian Caps in the NFL,” Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, said during a recent webinar discussion.
According to NFL data, the cap will absorb at least 10 percent of the force during a hit to the helmet. That percentage doubles if both players involved in the hit are using the caps.
The league said concussions reached a seven-year low during training camp last year, when use of the caps was mandated for some players.