CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns are just days away from the start of training camp in preparation for the 2016 regular season, and as the players and coaches ready themselves for the constant on-field work and classroom meetings, here is a look at the team, position by position.
Today, we discuss the wide receivers.
OVERVIEW
In the two years Ray Farmer served as general manager of the Browns, the team selected no wide receivers in the NFL Draft, but Sashi Brown, the current executive vice president of football operations, and head coach Hue Jackson certainly utilized a different approach in 2016.
During their first draft together, Brown and Jackson selected five former college wide receivers, four of whom project as NFL receivers, including Corey Coleman, whom the team chose out of Baylor University with their first pick.
The former Baylor University wide receiver was selected by the Browns with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Already an impact player within the Bears’ offense heading into the 2015 season, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Coleman set new career bests during the year when he turned 74 catches into 1,363 yards and 20 touchdowns for a Baylor team that won its first eight games of the season.
In three years with the Bears, Coleman turned 173 catches into 3,009 yards and 33 touchdowns.
“He’s a tremendous player,” Jackson said during minicamp last month. “He’s going to be pretty good. I ride him pretty hard because he has so much ability and I want to get it out of him. He’s really shown why we drafted him in the first round.
“He is a tremendous talent. If he keeps working like he is and stays as humble and he has great desire to be a great football player, I think that’s going to happen for him. He’s still got to earn it. He’s got to work for it. He’s got to go fight for it to go get it. I think he will.”
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Twenty-seven
Only two of the Browns’ top four receiving threats from last year have returned for 2016, but neither, tight end Gary Barnidge and running back Duke Johnson Jr., are wide receivers. With the departures of Travis Benjamin (free agency) and Brian Hartline (released), Andrew Hawkins is the Browns’ leading returning receiver.
Due to concussions and other health issues, Hawkins was restricted to just eight games in 2015, where he caught 27 of the 44 passes thrown to him and turned those receptions into 276 yards, an average of 10.2 yards per reception.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Jordan Payton
In four years with the UCLA Bruins, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Payton improved his statistics every season, and finished his career with 201 receptions for 2,702 yards and 14 touchdowns.
During his senior season in 2015, Payton turned 78 receptions into 1,106 yards and five touchdowns. In addition to setting career bests for catches and yards, Payton equaled his most productive average of 14.2 yards per reception.
In 2014, Payton caught 67 passes for 954 yards and a career-best seven touchdowns. Also, Payton caught a career-long 80-yard pass for the Bruins.
“Everywhere you go, you are going to walk into something where there is tremendous talent around you,” Payton said of the Browns. “For me and for myself, it is about building the best person I can be and the best teammate I can be, and ultimately, helping Cleveland win a championship.
“We are a great group, and we are excited for this opportunity. We have been with each other now for 24 hours and we all understand that there is one common goal, and that common goal is to help this team win. Everything that we do and everything that we have been doing together is to help Cleveland win games.”
