Joshua Palmer could barely contain his glee.
Shortly after his team’s thrilling, last-second 41-40 win over the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday, the Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver jumped on the home bench and frantically motioned with his arms for the Highmark Stadium crowd to get even louder.
A short time later, cameras caught up with Palmer as he made his way off the field.
“First ‘W’ in the big blue,” Palmer shouted. “Man, I love it. I love it here. Go Bills!”
There was plenty to celebrate in Week 1 for the Bills, especially when it came to the wide receiver spot. Of all the positions on offense, none was debated more than the team’s group of wideouts in the offseason. Did general manager Brandon Beane do enough to strengthen the group for Josh Allen? Would somebody outside of Khalil Shakir step up? If so, whom would it be?
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It’s only one week, but the fourth-quarter performances of Palmer and Keon Coleman against the Ravens showed the Bills might have two answers.
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Second-year wide receiver Keon Coleman had a career-high eight catches last week in the Bills' 41-40 come-from-behind victory over the Baltimore Ravens. His 112 receiving yards were the second-highest total, trailing only a 125-yard effort last year against the Titans. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
“Even last year, there was always a concern or a question mark,” Bills receivers coach Adam Henry said Friday in an interview with The Buffalo News. “For me, there is not. The guys that are going to play are going to be prepared. For me, I have 1,000% confidence in these guys. ... I expect them to do great things. They know what’s at hand. For us to go where we want to go, we have to do our part in our room. We have to contribute to this team. It’s about earning the respect of our teammates and contributing at a high level.”
It was a slow start for Coleman and Palmer against the Ravens. The offense struggled to find a rhythm after its opening drive. That played a part in the duo combining for just two catches for 21 yards in the first half. By the end of the third quarter, that total had grown to just three catches for 29 yards, although Palmer did draw an important pass interference penalty on Ravens cornerback Jaire Alexander to set up a Buffalo touchdown.
They play four quarters for a reason, though, and Palmer and Coleman each made the most of the final one, which started with the Bills trailing by 15 points, 34-19, and needing to throw it often.
Palmer had five catches on eight targets for 61 yards. Coleman finished with a team-leading 11 targets that produced eight catches for 112 yards and a touchdown.
“When you continue to compete, the ball will find you, and that’s what happened the other night, and (Coleman) was productive through those key moments for us – in particular at the end,” head coach Sean McDermott said.
Shakir added six catches for 64 yards, meaning the team’s top three receivers collectively produced 19 receptions for 237 yards. It will be difficult to duplicate that kind of production on a weekly basis, but it was there wen the Bills needed it against a premier opponent.
“Anytime that we can get the ball into our playmakers’ hands, especially down the field, it’s good things for us,” Allen said. “We’ve got to keep working hard, keep finding ways to get the ball to them and start faster.”
Perhaps the best sign for the Bills is that, on their game-winning drive, both Palmer and Coleman made huge contributions. In the biggest moment of the game, they stepped up. Palmer – who signed a three-year contract with the Bills after having spent his first four NFL seasons with the Chargers – came to Buffalo with the reputation as a receiver who excelled at beating man coverage.
That was on display one of the biggest plays of the game.
On a second-and-10 play from the Bills’ 34-yard line with 53 seconds remaining, Palmer was lined up alone to Allen’s left. On the snap, he ran 10 yards straight at Alexander before sticking his right foot in the turf, faking an inside route and turning toward the left sideline.
That put Alexander in a blender. Allen delivered a perfect ball to Palmer, who was wide open at the Ravens’ 45-yard line, and he turned it upfield to the Baltimore 34 – a crucial gain of 31 yards. Alexander was in man coverage on the play, and Palmer won the route. Decisively.
“We had ran that play earlier and had a good gain by the tight end on the sideline,” Henry said. “So in that situation, we had man. His job is to go out and win the one-on-ones. We do that consistently, we’ll have a chance, right? For him, it was just a routine play with a lot of spacing. That’s part of it when you’re living right.”
While it may have been a routine play, the situation was anything but routine. It was Palmer’s first game as a member of the Bills, on the sport’s biggest stage (Sunday night) in the regular season. The game was justifiably hyped as a potential AFC championship game preview. The Bills were attempting to complete an improbable comeback in a game that could impact the conference’s playoff seeding.
So, yeah … anything but routine, no matter how many times the Bills may have run that play in practice.
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Bills wide receiver Joshua Palmer had plenty to celebrate during his team's come-from-behind win in Week 1. Palmer finished with 61 yards on five catches. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
“A routine play in a big game, it becomes a big play,” Palmer said. “It’s just being comfortable with the routine plays that we do as an offense. When the time for it is needed and it’s a big moment in the game, these turn into, now, big plays. But at the beginning, it’s routine. Just the nature of the comeback. Being able to show up for the team in my first game was huge.”
After Palmer’s catch, it was Coleman’s turn.
On the ensuing first down, Coleman beat Alexander clean on a post route for a gain of 25 yards that moved the ball to the Ravens’ 11-yard line – chip-shot territory for a potential game-winning field goal by newcomer Matt Prater.
For a player who had to answer questions about his lack of separation all offseason, Coleman had no problem losing Alexander in that situation.
“Without question, the most significant difference between Keon Coleman from Year 1 vs. the film on Sunday night was his ability to sell vertical routes, throttle down and work back to the (quarterback) or over the middle,” wrote Matthew Harmon, a football analyst for Yahoo Sports who specializes in the evaluation of wide receivers, on his X account. “Especially a stark contrast vs. his regular season game against Baltimore last year. Big difference and key for a player of his archetype. That’s how you become more Courtland Sutton than DeVante Parker at X-receiver.”
For his part, Coleman did his best to downplay the significance of Week 1.
“It’s just one game, but it is a great start,” Coleman said. “That’s expected. It’s expected for me to go out there and make the plays that I make. A win is expected, too. I guess it’s pretty validating in a sense. I guess you can say that. But when you put in the work, you have a different expectation for yourself, and when the guys around you see the work you put in and they know what you’re capable of, the expectations change. When you meet them, it’s not a big (party). It’s like, ‘Let’s keep it going.’ ”
That answer encapsulated what the Bills have said about Coleman all offseason. He’s grown not just as an athlete, but as a worker.
“Learning how to be a professional football player,” Allen said. “He’s in here as early as anybody, getting rehab and work done on his body and doing all the little things right. So I think when you got guys that care about their job, do the little things right, they’re there where they’re supposed to be, typically good things happen. That’s just what we saw this game.”
Because of injuries at the position during training camp, Coleman got even more work with Allen than he normally would have. It was revealed last week that Coleman also fought through a groin injury during camp, knowing that the position was down in numbers, but also that the extra reps with Allen in the summer would only benefit them both once the real games began.
Coleman played 75 of the offense’s 85 snaps against the Ravens (88%), the most of any active receiver.
His target share proves he has earned the trust of the star quarterback – which is significant.
“I’ve seen the work he’s been putting in this offseason. Everything he’s kind of said he wanted to do as far as be more physical, being better after the catch, making big catches – all that showed,” Shakir said. “I’m proud of him, the work he’s put in this offseason to become the player he is now. It doesn’t stop now, and he’s well aware of that. His mindset has changed. He’s been a real professional.”
Shakir’s point is a good one: The work can’t stop. It was reiterated by Henry, who knows that each week presents its own, unique challenges.
The Jets, for example, have one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, fifth-year veteran Sauce Gardner. What Palmer and Coleman accomplished last week will mean little at kickoff time Sunday. Questions about whether the Bills have enough at the position won’t totally disappear after one promising result.
After an offseason of doubt about the position, though, it was reassuring to see the production in Week 1.
“We want the ball with the game on the line, and seeing Keon and Josh make those plays at the end was huge,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said.
Now, the challenge is to keep it up.
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