Is Browns wide receiver Corey Coleman an NFL Draft bust?

 

To say such is the equivalent of fighting words. It’s personal. It cuts right to the bone.

 

OK, OK, but is he a draft bust?

 

That’s hard to say. But right now, it would appear that way.

 

Two seasons, two wasted opportunities.

 

That’s not what a team needs from its first-round draft choice, in his case in 2016. Moreover, Coleman was the very first draft pick of the new Browns regime that was taking over then. A regime makes its first big statement with that first draft selection. It is a trend-setter. He is the player-face of the regime.

 

And that’s not a good look at all considering what Coleman has done, and, as it were, has not done.

 

His season may well have ended – or at least it was put on hold for a long time — when it was confirmed Monday that, as expected, he had broken his hand in Sunday’s 24-10 road loss to the Baltimore Ravens. It is the same hand – but a different bone – that Coleman broke last year, causing him to miss six weeks. As such, he had just 33 receptions for 413 yards (a 12.5 yards-per-catch average) and three touchdowns.

 

That was hardly the type of impact the Browns expected when they chose him at No. 15 overall.

 

That a re-do of that experience appears to be in the offing is even more disappointing and frustrating for everybody involved.

 

The Browns went into the draft in 2016 in dire need of help at wide receiver. Here it is a year and half later and they are still woefully inadequate at that position era.

 

It doesn’t help that the Browns also appear to have come up empty with their big free-agent signing of wide receiver Kenny Britt in the offseason. He looked bad in training camp and the preseason, and has done nothing – except drop a key pass in the 21-18 season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers – in two regular-season games.

 

The Browns, trying to recover from last season’s disastrous 1-15 finish while also attempting to dig out of the fact they’ve had nine straight losing records, simply can’t afford a one-two kick to the gut at wide receiver with no help from two players on whom they were greatly counting.

 

So here we are.

 

Nobody said the Browns’ complete rebuilding project would be easy. And you know what? It hasn’t been.