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Keon Coleman of the Buffalo Bills is under pressure to have a big season.
With the Buffalo Bills last season coming within one Dalton Kincaid dropped pass of their first trip to the Super Bowl in 31 years, it would be fair to say that the entire team, as well as the whole Bills organization, is under pressure to do better in 2025.
With an NFL MVP quarterback in Josh Allen entering his eighth season, and five straight years of dominance in the AFC East, the Bills — a team that has never won a Super Bowl — can be satisfied with nothing less than a Super Bowl bid, if not an NFL championship.
Pressure is On in Orchard Park
In fact, the Bills have been among the preseason favorites to win the Super Bowl for almost every year this decade, and even three seasons ago, Bills players spoke openly of the “urgency” they felt to bring Buffalo its first-ever Super Bowl victory.
The pressure is definitely on in Buffalo.
But which players on the Bills roster will be under the greatest pressure to raise their games this season? That was the question asked by USA Today Bills Wire analyst Nick Wojton on Thursday.
“The team will be depending on some younger players to make big impacts throughout the year,” Wonton wrote. “All in all, there is plenty of pressure to go around.”
Second-Year Wide Receiver Under Greatest Pressure
So who are the players under the most individual pressure as the season draws closer, now barely over three weeks away?
Topping the Bills Wire list — 22-year-old wide receiver Keon Coleman.
At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, the former Florida State Seminole is a larger than usual physical specimen at his position. The average NFL wide receiver stands an even six feet and weighs in at 199 pounds, according to figures compiled by Oddspedia.
Did his size advantage prove to be an advantage on the field in his rookie season, after the Bills made him the first player drafted in the second round at No. 33 overall? (Because they traded down in the draft the Bills had no first round pick and Coleman was their first player selected.)
It’s hard to say, because a hand injury he suffered on November 3 against the Miami Dolphins derailed his season and cost him four games.
Coleman Must Show Progress After Hand Injury
Coleman ended up without enough targets to qualify him for NFL leader boards. But he averaged 19.2 yards per reception on just 29 catches in 57 targets. Compared to the league leaders, that would have put Coleman 14th in the NFL, just behind Dontayvion Wicks of the Green Bay Packers (19.5).
“Coleman had a decent start to his NFL career as a rookie but slowed down. A hand injury played a part there,” Wojton wrote. “Regardless, after the Bills decided not to make a splash wide receiver addition this offseason which means the team is counting on him to make an impact.”
3 Other Bills Players Under Pressure in 2025
Also on the “most pressure” list, according to Bills Wire: running back James Cook whose contract demands have only increased the pressure placed on him to produce big numbers in 2025.
Rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston, the Bills’ 2025 first-round pick out of Kentucky, also makes the “pressure” list simply because “any top rookie draft pick has plenty of pressure on them. Hairston is no exception.”
Finally, the fourth Bills player under the most pressure, according to Bills Wire, is the quarterback, Allen himself, whose incredible NFL resumé would seem to include everything — except one very important thing.
A Super Bowl championship.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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