Skip to main content

Browns trade down to nab WR Corey Coleman

The wheeling-and-dealing Cleveland Browns have finally picked a football player.

After trading down from No. 2 and then -- on Thursday in a deal with the Titans -- from No. 8 to No. 15, the Browns snatched up Baylor's Corey Coleman, the first receiver off the board.

Hailing from the same school as quarterback Robert Griffin III, Coleman addresses one of Cleveland's most desperate needs.

Joining a thin group that includes Andrew Hawkins, Taylor Gabriel, Brian Hartline and project Terrelle Pryor, Coleman has an opportunity to start right away.

"He's very thick and strong and short," a scout told Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Explosive run after the catch guy. He's like Anquan Boldin."

NFL Media's Lance Zierlein also compared the 5-foot-11, 194-pound Coleman to Arizona's John Brown, with one AFC assistant coach telling NFL.com: "(Coleman's) my top receiver. Now this is for what we do, so he's going to be tops for me. He can do a lot of things and I'm not worried about those simple routes because he's got some gifts to work with. Like him a lot more than (Laquon) Treadwell or the Notre Dame guy (Will Fuller)."

Coleman ran a limited selection of routes at Baylor, but lands with one of the NFL's top offensive minds in Browns coach Hue Jackson. The pick itself suggests that Jackson will get the players he desires under the team's newly fashioned front office led by VP of football operations Sashi Brown.

With a horde of picks left in this draft, Coleman won't be the last player chosen to help Jackson turn this roster around.