Former Michigan State players in the NFL have had an impressive 2025 season, and one former star is shining in the NFL Playoffs for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
Guys like Jayden Reed, Jalen Nailor, and Kenneth Walker III looked good this year, when healthy, and even former Spartan Keon Coleman showed some flashes.
Unfortunately, the latter has received a ton of criticism for not living up to his NFL draft hype.
Coleman was a second-round pick out of Florida State by way of Michigan State. He spent his first two collegiate seasons in East Lansing before transferring to Florida State to improve his draft stock (which turned out to be the right move seeing as Mel Tucker was fired shortly after). He put up decent numbers for a Florida State that had an undefeated regular season but was snubbed from the playoff because its QB1 got injured.
The former Spartan, who still shows Michigan State a ton of love and gives Courtney Hawkins credit for developing him, was selected by the Buffalo Bills at No. 33 overall in 2024.
Expectations were high for Coleman to potentially be Josh Allen’s No. 1 target, and he showed some flashes as a rookie with 29 catches for 556 yards and four touchdowns.
In year two, he took a bit of a step back with his explosive plays, catching 38 passes for just 404 yards and four scores. He was solid, but never truly stood out.
Keon Coleman’s future looks murky after weird owner quote
Now, he finds himself in a weird position with two years left on his contract, a new coaching staff coming in after the Bills fired Sean McDermott, and his own front office basically telling the media on Wednesday that he didn’t want to draft Coleman, the previous staff did.
Bills owner Terry Pegula on Keon Coleman: "The coaching staff pushed to pick Keon." Said Coleman wasn't at the top of Beane's list and that he was being a team player with the pick.
— Alaina Getzenberg (@agetzenberg) January 21, 2026
Pegula interrupted a Beane answer to make that known.
This is just an insane thing for a team owner to say about a guy who’s currently on the team and who has two years left in his rookie contract. Throwing him under the bus by saying his general manager didn’t have Coleman at the top of his draft board, but McDermott and the coaching staff pushed for him is insane. What does that do for your own player?
I don’t know what the next moves are here, but it feels like Coleman should — or will — be traded this offseason. Maybe he can come to Michigan and make some Lions fanny happy as a second or third option for a potential Super Bowl contender (if the team is healthy).