The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Garrett, Coleman miss OTAs with injuries
The Browns picked eight players in the first round of the drafts from 2012 to 2017, and as organizedteam activities resumed on May 31, only one of them, 2015 pick Danny Shelton, was on the practice fields in Berea.
Myles Garrett, the first overall pick in 2017, sat out with an undisclosed injury. The Browns say the defensive end from Texas A&M practiced May 30 and say he will practice June 1, but he did not practice on the only day this week OTAs were open to the media.
Corey Coleman, the Browns first pick (pick 15th overall) in 2016, also sat out practice and might not be ready until training camp. The wide receiver is still suffering from falling on the ball and cornerback Jason McCourty falling on him after catching a pass from Brock Osweiler during OTAs on May 24.
The other five first-round picks of the last six drafts — running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden in 2012, linebacker Barkevious Mingo in 2013, plus cornerback Justin Gilbert and quarterback Johnny Manziel in 2014 — are long gone, just footnotes of failure in the Browns draft history.
“It’s nothing major,” coach Hue Jackson said of Garrett. “I think we’re right where we need to be. He’s done a good job. He looked good yesterday. He looked like Myles Garrett — big, fast, tough. He’s everything that we think he is. We’ll get him back out there tomorrow.”
Caution was the word of the day for Coleman, too.
Osweiler threw a perfect pass to the second-year player from Baylor as Coleman sprinted outside the numbers near the left sideline midway through the practice open to the media last week. McCourty was covering him closely. Coleman stumbled and McCourty landed on him.
McCourty bounced up. Coleman stayed down. A trainer trotted over to him and then Jackson walked over, probably dreading the worst. Jackson was relieved when Coleman eventually stood and walked to the locker room with the trainer at his side.
“He’ll be fine,” Jackson said after practice on May 24. “He came down, I think, on the ball a little bit, too, but I think he’ll be OK.”
Coleman, who missed six games last season with a broken hand, stood with the other receivers observing practice on May 31. Jackson would not divulge what is wrong. All he would say is none of Coleman’s bones are broken.
“We’re going to keep him out for a little while,” Jackson said. “That was a tough spill for him —a little tougher than I thought. 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’ll see how it all unfolds at the end.”
Kenny Britt, the veteran wide receiver signed after Terrelle Pryor bolted for the Redskins, worked on the sideline with trainers on May 31 because of an unspecified injury.
With Coleman and Britt sidelined. Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins and Jordan Payton, all in their second year, are getting most of the practice time. Those three combined for 25 catches and zero touchdowns last season.
“Those guys have to continue to step up,’’ Jackson said. “We have a lot of young players at that position. We’ve got to see that they can play, because that whole group has got to take another jump.
“We don’t have a guy who’s a leading returning player in the National Football League at that position other than Corey that’s really played a lot of football in that group. So I can see everyone saying (wide receiver is an unknown), but I feel comfortable that there’s talent there and if we can develop it and harness it the right way and the guys keep working at it and working at it every day, who knows what can happen?’’
The Browns did not draft a wide receiver, nor was a wide receiver among the undrafted rookies they signed.