Why Bills GM was happy with WR Keon Coleman’s poor 40-yard dash time

The 40-yard dash, while somewhat outdated, has long been the primary tool used to test the speed of NFL prospects. The drill, held at each year’s collegiate Pro Days and NFL Scouting Combine, sees players line up in a three-point stance before exploding into a sprint, during which time they are able to cover 40 yards , in theory, indicating their speed.

It’s arguably the most popular part of each year’s Combine, and for good reason: It’s admittedly pretty fun to watch elite athletes sprint. There is, however, one significant problem with the test: football players in general do not start from a three-point position.

Prospects who run the 40-yard dash often get stuck on takeoff, so the resulting time does not accurately represent their actual speed. This isn’t to discredit players like Xavier Worthy, who completed the exercise in a record time of 4.21 seconds this year, but given the non-soccer intricacies of the test, it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that this is an accurate indication of a prospect’s velocity. .

This is where the idea of ​​”testing speed” versus “playing speed” comes in: a prospect may not test well in the 40-yard dash, but that’s ultimately meaningless if his speed is evident on the ground. The Buffalo Bills are confident that wide receiver Keon Coleman is the latest player to fall into this category; The 6-foot-3 wideout, who the Bills selected with the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, did not perform well in the 40-yard dash at this year’s Combine, running a 40 of 4 .61 seconds (second worst among receivers). waiting for).

The Buffalo brass, however, wasn’t bothered by the prospect’s poor performance. General manager Brandon Beane was actually happy about it.

For what? This made the possibility of him falling to the bottom of the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft more realistic.

The team recently uploaded a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the 2024 draft to its YouTube channel, with the front office’s trip to this year’s Combine among the topics covered. The video shows Beane and company watching and discussing Coleman’s 40-yard dash, with the executive telling colleagues he was pleased with the wideout’s time.

“I’m glad he led that,” Beane told assistant general manager Brian Gaine and director of player personnel Terrance Gray after Coleman’s run. “It will help to have it.”

Beane and Gray compared Coleman’s drill to that of Gabriel Davis at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine; the then-UCF receiver posted a disappointing 4.54, allowing him to fall to the Bills in the fourth round.

What made Buffalo more confident in its initial evaluation of Coleman was his performance in the gauntlet drill; it reached a top speed of 20.36 miles per hour during the test, by NextGenStatsthe highest of all players in his group.

Beane talked about Coleman’s speed in the Bills’ YouTube video, again reiterating the idea of ​​”test speed” versus “play speed.”

“He’s a guy that has game speed, he’s got short-area quickness for a big guy,” Beane said. “We all know some guys can run the track time, but that’s also where the mental part comes in. I always say if you run the 4.3 but you’re not smart, you’ll never play in 4.3.

While Coleman’s lack of top-end speed may be an overblown concern, he’s not a great splitter; he will have to refine his background and his general technique in order to systematically create separation at the professional level. That said, the 20-year-old is a malleable ball of clay, a prospect that the Bills have the flexibility to mold into whatever they want.

That “molding” will begin soon, as Coleman figures to play a prominent role in a Buffalo receiving corps that lost Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis in the offseason. Beane has already indicated that the former Florida State Seminole will likely serve as the team’s “X” wide receiver, usually lined up on the outside.

Check out the full episode of Buffalo Bills Embedded here; Combine clips start at 6:30.