Fresh Coat of Paint: WR Keon Coleman replaces Stefon Diggs on downtown Buffalo mural

Keon Coleman has an unenviably tall task ahead of him.

He’s not unique in this; the vast majority of rookies entering the NFL immediately have the weight of the world burdened atop their shoulders. They have to learn a new playbook and scheme, forge bonds with new coaches and teammates both on and off the field, adjust to a new level of competition and region of the country—an NFL rookie’s acclimation period is very much an embodiment of the phrase “life comes at you fast.”

Coleman, however, faces a task arguably more challenging than that of the median rookie, that may, to the average person, seem insurmountable. The 6-foot-3 pass catcher not only figures to be a primary contributor to (and perhaps the No. 1 option in) a revamped Buffalo Bills passing attack—he, on paper, is replacing one of the NFL’s elite players in the role.

The Bills traded four-time Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans in the 2024 offseason, tying a haphazard bow atop a once amorous tenure that quickly soured. Diggs's on-field contributions in Buffalo are well-documented; he currently sits as the team’s fourth-all-time leading receiver, his electric on-field chemistry with quarterback Josh Allen allowing both he and his signal caller to cement themselves as two of the league’s premiere players at their respective positions.

And making their connection on Sundays that much more endearing to Bills fans was their apparent friendship off it; Diggs and Allen genuinely appeared to be close, even appearing with each other on the cover of an SI Kids magazine issue dubbed “The BFF Issue.” It looked like a relationship that was built to last, with Diggs stating on multiple occasions that he desired to retire a Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo fans celebrated this relationship, the commemoration taking various forms like merchandise featuring the two and “Allen/Diggs” presidential yard signs. The celebration even manifested in the form of art, particularly as a mural outside of a bar on Buffalo’s Hertel Avenue. The piece, originally by local artist Carl Cordes, featured Allen and Diggs standing alongside each other and served as a popular photo op in north Buffalo.

But nothing great in football lasts forever, with Diggs’s stint in Buffalo ultimately falling victim to this sentiment. Reports regarding rifts in the Allen and Diggs relationship surfaced over the past several seasons, with the receiver’s consistent cryptic tweets and decision to miss a day of 2023’s mandatory minicamp suggesting that he wished to play elsewhere. While it’s not believed that he formally requested a trade, the Bills dealt him to the Texans in April. 

The trade left Buffalo with a two-time All-Pro-sized hole in its receiving corps and an outdated mural on its north end. Enter Coleman to fix both of these issues.

The Bills selected Coleman with the 33rd overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, positioning the former Florida State Seminole, who caught 115 passes for 1,506 yards and 19 touchdowns throughout his three-year collegiate career, as the highest-profile player in a Buffalo receiver room now sans Diggs and Gabriel Davis.

The 20-year-old made an immediate impression on the Western New York faithful, humorously referencing his affordable Macy’s jacket during his introductory press conference before grabbing some Wegmans cookies on his way out of the media room. It’s been difficult to maneuver through Buffalo social media throughout the past several days without seeing memes featuring the puffy yellow coat, and it’s now been immortalized atop the aforementioned Allen and Diggs mural.

Just as Buffalo hopes Coleman will replace Diggs in its receiving corps, Coleman has replaced Diggs on the Hertel Avenue mural, his now-iconic Macy’s jacket replacing the departed Bill’s No. 14 uniform.

Cordes took to his Instagram to share the update, writing that it’s the result of a collaboration with a Buffalo-based company.

“I have a tendency to hide away [and] create art alone, but this update is a testament to collaboration,” Cordes wrote. “This mural began as my umpteenth Allen [and] Diggs drawing [and] Rory [of Zoom Buffalo] transformed it into something . . . clever and resourceful.”

Coleman’s impact on the Buffalo faithful is already significant; let’s hope he can carry that impact onto the field.