A NEW START – ONCE AGAIN – FOR THE BROWNS

By STEVE KING

No one – absolutely, positively no one – should have been surprised with the trade of wide receiver Corey Coleman to the Buffalo Bills the other day. It was the freight train that could be seen coming for miles, and days, even months.

Coleman never, ever – not from the very outset — looked like the No. 15 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Whether he was on the shelf with some kind of injury or dropping passes, he never progressed during his two-plus seasons with the Browns.

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It came to a head in the final game of last season at Pittsburgh when he dropped – badly so, embarrassingly so – a pass that would have done a lot to give the Browns a rare road win over the Steelers. Right then and there, you could sense it – feel it, see it – that he was broken as a player with the Browns and that it was never going to happen here for him. He would have to go elsewhere for a fresh start to have a chance to carve out a niche for himself in the league.

A trade was going to happen at some point, and it finally happened earlier this week with him being sent to Buffalo. Good luck to him.

And now the Browns can move on. It’s what happens not just a lot – but every single time — in the NFL when new regimes come in. They – in the person of General Manager John Dorsey here – come in and, with a big broom, sweep away – out the door and into a big garbage bag to be placed out by the street by the trash people – nearly everything and everyone they inherit. They replace them with the new people and things they bring in.

Or so it goes again as the Browns, for the umpteenth time, try to get it right in this nightmarish expansion era.

Let’s talk about the Browns wide receivers 

The Browns are receiving a lot of attention because of what’s going on with their wide receivers, and with that, then, I’d like to add to it with some opinions you’re not going to see anywhere else:

*Even though, with the stupid, selfish, immature and irresponsible actions of rookie Antonio Callaway, it has left them a little – or a lot — thin at wideout, don’t blame the Browns for trading Corey Coleman. He had proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that he couldn’t cut it – at least in Cleveland. Keeping him here any longer would have been a big waste of everybody’s time. He absolutely had to go. The Browns had no idea that Callaway, who was going to take over Coleman’s starting spot, was going to get into trouble for possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license.

*But shouldn’t the Browns have had an idea that something like this could happen with Callaway? Of course, they should have. His off-the-field behavior – or lack thereof – is the reason why he slipped from the first to the fourth round of the NFL Draft. As such, he came to the Browns living on the edge. He has apparently fallen off. Should anyone be surprised? These things happen to these kinds of troubled people. Have you ever heard of a player named Josh Gordon?

*These general managers and coaches all think they have the magic pill to straighten out these wayward souls when no one else through the years has been able to do it. Well, they don’t have it. No one does.

*Browns General Manager John Dorsey has always been ready, willing and able to take a wild chance and push the envelope. Sometimes, it works. And sometimes, it doesn’t. To this point, it suddenly – and certainly — doesn’t seem to be working with Callaway. But we’ll wait and see.