Cole Beasley

Cole Dickson Beasley (born April 26, 1989) is an American football wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. He was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2012. He played college football at Southern Methodist University.

High School
Beasley attended Little Elm High School, where he was an option quarterback, leading the Lobos to the Texas UIL-4A playoffs in consecutive years. He was a district co-MVP, posting 1,184 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, 1,570 passing yards, and 12 touchdowns. He was rated as a two-star recruit by Rivals.com.

College career
Beasley accepted a scholarship from Southern Methodist University, where he was converted into a wide receiver, playing in 11 games with 7 starts as a freshman, while finishing third on the team with 42 receptions for 366 yards and three touchdowns.

As a sophomore, he started seven games, making 40 receptions (fourth on the team), 493 yards and three touchdowns. SMU would win the 2009 Hawaii Bowl marking the first bowl invite since the so-called death penalty.

As a junior, he posted 87 receptions (second for a single-season in school history), 1,060 yards and six touchdowns.

As a senior, he registered 86 receptions for 1,040 yards (second on the team) and two touchdowns.

2012 season: Rookie year
Beasley went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft because of his size and was signed by the Dallas Cowboys. He left abruptly during training camp, stating he was dealing with "personal stuff", and even considered retiring from professional football. He went on to have a sudden change of heart, returning and making the final 53-man roster. In 10 games of his rookie year, he made 15 receptions for 128 receiving yards.

2013 season
Beasley found ways to be productive while being surrounded by a solid corps of wide receivers, having the highest completion percentage of any receiver in the NFL with more than 10 targets. He was targeted by quarterback Tony Romo on third down, especially in spread formations. Much of this became attributed to Beasley's very good route running. He posted 39 receptions for 368 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. He also returned 10 punts for 68 yards, along with one kickoff for 11 yards.

2014 season
Beasley posted 37 receptions (fourth on the team), 420 yards (fourth on the team) and four touchdowns. He averaged nearly 50 yards per game during the final six contests of the season. In the Wild Card playoff win against the Detroit Lions, he made four catches – three for first downs- for 63 yards and recovered a critical Romo fumble.

2015 season
On March 3, the Cowboys signed Beasley for an additional four years, with a total contract value of $13.6 million. With leading receiver Dez Bryant injured for most of the season, he finished with 52 receptions (tied for second on the team) for 537 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns (led the team), while playing with four different starting quarterbacks with varying degrees of knowledge of the team's offense.

At the beginning of the year he was used to fill in as a punt returner, due to his ball security ability. He was eventually replaced by rookie Lucky Whitehead after having poor return averages and a critical muffed punt in a loss against the New York Giants.

2016 season
Beasley posted career highs in receptions and yards, catching 75 passes for 833 yards and five touchdowns on 98 targets. His 76.5% catch rate ranked second among NFL wide receivers in 2016.

2017 season
In the 2017 season, Beasley finished with 36 receptions for 314 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns.

2018 season
Beasley started the 2018 season with seven receptions for 73 yards in a 16–8 loss to the Carolina Panthers. In Week 6, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he had nine receptions for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the 40–7 victory. Overall, he finished with 65 receptions for 672 yards and three touchdowns in the 2018 season. The Cowboys won the NFC East and earned the #4-seed in the NFC Playoffs. In the Wild Card Round against the Seattle Seahawks, Beasley had three receptions for 28 yards in the 24–22 victory. In the Divisional Round against the Los Angeles Rams, he had one reception for 15 yards in the 30–22 loss.

Buffalo Bills
On March 13, 2019, Beasley signed a four-year, $29 million contract with the Buffalo Bills.

Music career
Beasley released the single "80 Stings" in 2017. In 2018, he released his debut rap album The Autobiography.