End of an Era-Corey Coleman shuffled off to Buffalo

One more linchpin of the Sashi Brown era was taken off of its moorings late last night as the Cleveland Browns traded 2016 first round wide receiver Corey Coleman to the Buffalo Bills for the massive return of a seventh rounder in the 2020 draft.

Honestly, I would have rather seen Coleman more in camp and preseason than take a 7th rounder in 2020 now, but apparently the Browns either had enough of Coleman already, liked rookie Antonio Callaway and/or third-year holdover Rashard Higgins far more  or all of the above and decided to take whatever they could receive even a lowly seventh rounder two years down the road.

Coleman was selected with the 15th pick in the 2016 draft out of Baylor, but struggled with broken hands (twice) and dropped passes even when his hands were not broken, most notably the fourth-down pass thrown to him against Pittsburgh as the Browns attempted to avoid the 0-16 record on the final week of the season.
Coleman did catch 56 passes for 718 yards with five touchdowns in his two years in Cleveland and occasionally flashed big-play ability but between issues staying on the field and the occasional off the field miscue, there are likely few in Cleveland disappointed in Coleman's departure.

Put me in the middle of the road.
Yes, Coleman drops passes and has been an immense disappointment, but he has had some terrible quarterbacks around him and maybe he isn't a number one receiver (although you'd like to think a 1st round pick can be that), but there have been plenty of players that aren't true number one receivers that flourish as a 2nd or 3rd pass catcher with more talent in the offense.
All things considered, I lean toward Coleman being a bust, but his speed is still there and provided the Browns run Josh Gordon, Jarvis Landry etc out on opening afternoon, I would have liked to have seen how productive Coleman might have been in running deep routes against the other team's nickel or dime coverage defensive backs and getting a seventh rounder doesn't change that.

However, if the Browns have already made a decision on Coleman and if they didn't think that he had a chance to stave off Higgins, Callaway or a new arrival to the roster, then it was best for the team and Coleman to move him to another opportunity and take the proverbial something instead of nothing.

Victory slips through Browns hands in Pittsburgh.0-16 arrives

Photo Credit:Joshua Gunter Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Cleveland Browns looked to have a chance to avoid the scar of 0-16 as the Browns reached the Pittsburgh Steelers 27 yard line for a 4th and two with under two minutes to play.
DeShone Kizer made a great play avoiding the Steeler rush and had an opening that he may have been able to run for the first down through, but quarterbacks aren't paid to run, they are paid to throw and Kizer did just that to Corey Coleman, who was wide open and the ball was thrown right to him.
Or should I say-right through him as in right through his hands ending the hopes of the Browns and sending Cleveland to 0-16 with a 28-24 loss to the Steelers.
DeShone Kizer threw for 314 yards and two touchdowns, one of those to Josh Gordon, who finished with over 100 receiving yards on the day.
No word on who the Browns will open with in September,but they are on the clock for the draft in April...

Brownie Bits

1) Corey Coleman was reported to be distraught in the locker room as he sat by his locker in uniform for 40 minutes with his head in his hands and it was "good" I guess to see that he cared that much.
Still, you have to catch that ball and if you want the most damning indictment of Sashi Brown and his stat-driven drafting style, look at what Michael Thomas ( one of those Buckeyes that the Browns are so averse to drafting) has done in two years in New Orleans compared to Coleman after being drafted a round after him...

2) DeShone Kizer played pretty well, I thought with the exception of the one bad pass in the fourth quarter that was his only interception of the day.
It's funny for the rookie from Notre Dame that his first game against the Steelers and his last game against the Steelers were among his better games in the debut season.
It was the games in between that were much of the problem.

3) The Browns also hopefully saw another highlight of some future stardom as Myles Garrett shed a block, stripped Landry Jones of the football and allowed Caleb Brantley to pluck the ball from mid-air.
Garrett finished the season with seven sacks and never seemed to be truly playing at full tilt.
Next year, Myles Garrett is going to show this league exactly what he is really all about.

4) Jabrill Peppers made his first interception as a pro in the first half.
I've been less than impressed with Peppers this season, although as a safety, that may be more due to Gregg Williams playing him out of position than his talents (at least I hope anyway or he is going to be a real bust), but Peppers has been a real disappointment returning punts.
For a player drafted with "Electric ball skills", Peppers spent more time calling for fair catches than trying to break big plays.

5) Looks like the Steelers have another good one in Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster, who returned a kickoff for a score and caught nine passes for 143 yards and another touchdown.
Why don't the Browns find these guys and the Steelers find the Smith-Schuster's (round two) and the Antonio Brown (Late Rounder) types?
Because the Steelers look for tough guys that can make the tough catches and play with a chip on their shoulder and the Browns like these diva types.
Until the Browns start getting some guys into town that don't mind getting dirty and playing dirty when they have to, things won't change.
John Dorsey has to see this.

6) It was nice to see Rashard Higgins grab his first two pro touchdown passes in the game, one of them a 56 yard score.
Higgins has always been the receiver out of the 2016 draft class that I have thought could be of value even if it's just as a third receiver over time given a chance.
I've always liked Higgins (and not just because he's the only Brown that follows me on Twitter) and I think as the Browns add talent at receiver, Higgins could be more productive in a role as third or fourth receiver.

7)  I'll be writing later in the week with a season in review and I have a podcast in the works with Scott Dryden on the season, but the big story is the unbelievable return of Hue Jackson.
Going 1-31 in two years and 0-16 this season and coming back in just beyond stupid and will set this team back.
John Dorsey deserves the chance to hire his coach and this is how I see this playing out-anything short of a 3-3 first six games, will see Hue Jackson either fired or resigned and the 2018 season wasted.
Jimmy Haslam continues to set this franchise back time and time again.

8) I admit two years that I thought Hue Jackson was a good hire and I will also say that if I had to choose which to keep between Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson, I would have chosen Hue Jackson.
All of that on the table- any normal franchise would remove Hue Jackson and I believe that it still could happen despite Jimmy Haslam's press conference after the game in Pittsburgh to the contrary.
I don't think it's likely that Jackson would go, but the Browns are even more of a laughing stock than normal anyway and keeping Jackson is a HUGE smack in the face to a fan base that needs to be massaged more than slapped.
There is a slim chance that with enough uproar Haslam's mind could be changed.

9) As far as this stupid parade goes, I'd like to see the whole thing canceled.
It started as an idea to give money to the Cleveland food bank, let's just give them the money and not draw any more attention to this disaster than there has to be.
It makes Browns fans look bad and makes light of a bad situation.

10) The Browns will have four of the first 35 picks in the draft as they hold the Texans first and second picks.
The injury to DeShaun Watson sent the Houston season down the drain and for once the Browns caught a break.
The Browns will have the first and fourth picks in round one and the first (33rd ) and third (35th) picks in the second round.
Cleveland also has the Eagles second-round pick, but that slot will not be determined until the Eagles lose in their playoff season...

Browns trade down again,select Corey Coleman in Round One

The Cleveland Browns weren't finished trading down in the first round of the NFL Draft, but eventually settled in at 15th overall and selected Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman.
Before I comment on Coleman, let us discuss the trade with the Tennessee Titans that brought more picks to the Browns.

Cleveland traded their first-rounder (8) and a sixth-round pick to the Titans for their first-rounder (15), third-rounder (76), and the Titans second-round pick in the 2017 draft.

The lovely Cherie commented, "I know these are good picks, but don't you get tired of waiting until next year-every year?"
She's right of course, but the Browns now have 2 picks in each of the first two rounds of next year's draft and put themselves in a position to control that draft.

However, don't forget about this one where the Browns hold the first pick in the second round and possess three third-rounders (65,76, and 77) to play with to fill holes or even trade up into the second round if a special player is worth making a move for.

After the trade to the 15th slot, Cleveland did take a badly needed receiver in Baylor's Corey Coleman.
Coleman was not my top-rated receiver (My top was Ole Miss WR Laquon Treadwell), but TCU's Josh Doctson was considered very close to the top of my WR list.
Coleman is looked at as the top deep threat in the draft as his speed is superior to Treadwell and Doctson, although, at 5'11, he isn't as tall as that pair and might not as be as large of a red zone target either.
Coleman is more of a game-breaker and lord knows that the Browns need as many of those as they can get, but there will be a bit of a learning curve as Coleman accumulated huge receiving numbers playing in the Baylor spread offense, which is much different than the pro-style offense that NFL teams use.

What I really like about Coleman was his 20-touchdown season with the Bears which saw him win the Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in college football.
Coleman caught 74 passes for over 1,300 yards for an average of 18.4 yards per reception, but keep in mind that teams that play in the Big 12 often have inflated offensive numbers due to the spread offense and poor defenses in that league.
The Browns (other than Josh Gordon in his one year of Comet Kohoutek-like play) haven't had a big play deep threat since the one solid year that Braylon Edwards had in 2007 and Coleman brings the capability of being able to do so.

Overall, I'm fine with Coleman.
Treadwell, Coleman, and Doctson all seem to be rated roughly the same by different observers with different orders of the three with most rating Treadwell as more NFL-ready and Coleman with more of the "upside" that we all talk about.
Corey Coleman will hopefully be the first step in revitalizing an offense that gives Dreary its name.....

I plan on a post on the Browns' second-rounder tomorrow night and then a follow-up on the third-round selections.