The Cleveland Browns in recent years have missed on a circus of first-round picks. Corey Coleman is here to shred that trend.
Longtime beat writer Tony Grossi called the former Baylor wideout the "real deal" at training camp, where Coleman is working with the first team as one of four drafted rookie wideouts.
"He can score the ball," said associate head coach on offense Pep Hamilton, per the team's official website. "He caught a hitch route down inside the red zone area, he made two guys miss and he scored the football. That's what we're going to need him to do. We need a big-play threat or two or three on the perimeter, and we feel like he's the guy who can do those things."
Said quarterback Josh McCown: "He's scored a bunch when we've had some of this live stuff. The cool thing about Corey is, he's still learning, but when the ball touches his hands, he's exactly why you picked him. That's impressive to me."
Cleveland coach Hue Jackson recently praised Coleman for his ability to "stack good days together," with Browns senior beat writer Andrew Gribble noting the rookie has looked "very comfortable in his first week of NFL training camp."
The predraft concern with Coleman was his lack of extensive route-running in Baylor's up-tempo spread offense. The rookie, though, spent time this summer working with Browns quarterback Robert Griffin III to get ahead of the curve.
"It builds camaraderie to know when he's going to be coming out of his breaks," Griffin said. "He made the effort to come out, to come work out when he could be off. He could be in the Bahamas or something, sipping on piña coladas or whatever he wanted to do. He came out to work. I think that's important for him, for us as a team. When you have examples like Joe Thomas and Joe Haden out here, it's easy to fall in line and make sure you're doing everything the right way."
A playmaking wideout can't arrive soon enough for the Browns. Outside of Josh Gordon's titanic campaign in 2013, Cleveland's offense has been entirely devoid of touchdown-makers.
Lining up Coleman next to Gordon changes that. Throw in tight end Gary Barnidge and pass-catching back Duke Johnson, and the Browns have the making of an offense. While it's too early to trust Griffin -- or Gordon, for that matter -- but Coleman has turned heads in a hurry.
"He's shown in that sense it's not too big for him when the bullets start flying and we start playing," McCown said. "What may separate him is that he's in a learning curve right now, but when the ball touches his hands, he's about scoring and getting in the end zone. That's impressive."
