The Bengals have gotten a bit of criticism after using a high first-round draft pick on a wide receiver with a lengthy injury history and questions about his long-term durability at the NFL level. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns’ own former first-round wide receiver is not having much better fortune when it comes to staying healthy in the NFL.
Corey Coleman, whom the Browns selected with the 15th-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, has already dealt with a few injuries in his career, and is dealing with yet another one at the moment. While only one of those injuries—a foot injury—occurred during the regular season, it resulted in him missing six games.
He also had an injury during the preseason, and is currently sidelined during OTAs after he “fell awkwardly last week in practice”, according to an article from the team’s website. The team has already said that they plan on holding him out of practice, perhaps until training camp.
“That was a tough spill for him, a little tougher than I thought”, Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson said recently about the injury. “He’s making his way through. You know Corey, he wants to be back out there right now. I just think that now is a time that if a guy is kind of banged up a little bit to make sure that we take care of him so that we can get him back for our training camp. We will see how it all unfolds at the end”.
This is an especially important season for Coleman after missing so much time during his rookie year, in which he was shown up by a former quarterback at the position who ended up earning himself a nice contract outside of the division. The Browns brought in Kenny Britt, but they will need their former first-round pick to be the top guy.
“What’s most important is that we get him back”, Jackson went on to say. “He has demonstrated the ability that we are looking for. Obviously, he has got to do it in the game. There are no games right now. The most important thing for the whole football team is health. It is making sure that we can get everybody back when it really starts to count ready to play”.
The Browns outside of the two aforementioned have a rather undistinguished group of wide receivers consisting primarily of second-year players after Cleveland bought the position in bulk during the 2016 NFL Draft. They will need at least one or two of those young players to step up this year as well.
But the onus is on Coleman to become ‘the guy’. “That is what we drafted him for”, Jackson noted. “I’m sure he will do that”.
