Xavier Worthy-Keon Coleman trade details: Revisiting the draft day deal that sent rookie WRs to AFC rivals

The 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs travel to Highmark Stadium to take on the 8-2 Buffalo Bills in Week 11 in a pivotal AFC matchup.

Sunday’s matchup is the first time these two teams have met since last season’s classic divisional round. Kansas City won 27-24 to advance to the AFC Championship en route to winning their second consecutive Super Bowl.

In addition to important stakes for playoff seeds and home field advantage, there’s another interesting aspect to this game: Kansas City and Buffalo meet for the first time since a surprise draft-day trade that ultimately landed WRs Keon Coleman and Xavier Worthy with the AFC – the rivals.

Unfortunately, Coleman won’t play against Kansas City due to a wrist injury, but Worthy figures to get his usual reps as the first big-play threat in the Chiefs’ offense.

Let’s look back at the deal between the two teams that sent Coleman and Worthy to their respective rookie franchises.

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Xavier Worthy-Keon Coleman trade information

During the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Bills traded back, sending the overall No. 28 to the Chiefs in exchange for the overall no. 32 with two extra picks.

Here were the initial terms of trade:

• Buffalo receives pick no. 32, no. 95 and no. 221
• Kansas City receives the No. 28, no. 133 and no. 248

The Bills later traded the No. 1 overall pick. 32 to Carolina in exchange for the No. 1 overall pick. 33 and a fourth-round pick.

With the trade, the Chiefs drafted Worthy out of the University of Texas in the first round and the Bills selected Coleman out of Florida State. Here’s a snapshot of both WRs’ collegiate careers:

Player	Seasons	School	Receptions	Yards	Touchdowns
Keon Coleman	2021-23	Michigan State, FSU	115	1,506	19
Xavier Worthy	2021-23	Texas	197	2,755	26

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Why did both teams make the switch?

For starters, both teams needed some receiver help. The Chiefs had to replace big-play threat Marquez Valdes-Scantling, while the Bills had to replace star wideout Stefon Diggs, who was traded to the Texans earlier this month. Because the teams were looking for different qualities in their respective early-round WRs, they both felt a deal that could potentially help their AFC rivals make sense.

“That’s not to say there won’t be a lot of work needed on his end,” Chiefs GM Brett Veach said of the decision to prepare Worthy. “It’s definitely a different game at this level. He’s going to have to get stronger – and all the things that have been mentioned about (his) playing strength.

“I just think about where we’re at with this team, just having somebody that can come in and provide game-breaking speed — and be smart enough to come in here and understand this offense and be ready to go.”

Of course, Bills fans were beautiful sorry for the trade. Kansas City has been the Bills’ biggest rival in the AFC in recent years, and Buffalo has an 0-3 record against the Chiefs in the playoffs.

Not to mention the last time the Chiefs traded back with the Bills in the first round of the draft? That was in 2017 when Kansas City originally had the 27th overall pick. The Chiefs traded with Buffalo to move up to No. 10 overall to select — wait for it — Patrick Mahomes.

“It’s ultimately going to have to play out on the field with the players that we signed (and) the player that they signed,” Bills GM Brandon Beane said of the trade. It’s not like we traded the player to Kansas City; I get the narrative that if we had traded Stefon Diggs to Kansas City, ‘well, why would you trade him there?’

“You don’t really know who someone is going to choose when you’re dealing with them,” he continued. “They’re not going to call and say, ‘Hey, we’re trading up and we’re going to take this player.’ And if you don’t trade them and you pick another player, they can still trade someone else. I’ve never understood that narrative; I’m sure they didn’t just call the Buffalo Bills to trade also to some other teams.”

When both offenses face off on Sunday, we’ll get front-row seats for whichever team made the best decision back in April.

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Xavier Worthy vs. Keon Coleman statistics 2024

Player	Receptions	Yards	Touchdowns
Xavier Worthy	20	246	3
Keon Coleman	22	417	3

Worthy has also rushed for 37 yards on nine carries, with one touchdown.