CLEVELAND: Apparently the famous movie line “you can’t handle the truth” doesn’t apply to Browns rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman.
A day after coach Hue Jackson publicly and privately challenged Coleman to get into better shape, the first-round draft pick conceded he must improve his conditioning.
“It’s the truth,” Coleman said Saturday after the Browns held their second practice of rookie minicamp during Fan Fest at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Coleman explained the grueling pre-draft process hurt his conditioning.
“I was gassed from doing a lot of traveling, trying to work out in hotel weight rooms and stuff like that,” he said. “So it’s kind of hard when you’re traveling to team visits, to the combine, just running two 40[-yard dashes] and a couple routes. Now it’s time to get back into football shape.
“Now I know what to expect. When I first got here, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how practice was going to be. No one knows, and you have to really begin to practice to really understand. So I know what to expect now, and I’m going to be perfectly fine.”
The rookies reported to minicamp Thursday and practiced for the first time Friday, whereupon Jackson realized Coleman and other newcomers need to knock off some rust. Jackson broached the subject with Coleman, then later with the media.
“He just told me pretty much the sky’s the limit for me,” said Coleman, the 15th overall pick. “He’s looking for big things in me. Just I’ve got to get in better shape. I feel the same way. I feel like I’ve got to get in better shape. It’s going to come by me being out there practicing hard.”
The 5-foot-10⅝, 194-pound Coleman insisted his feathers weren’t ruffled by Jackson calling him out publicly.
“It’s the truth,” Coleman said. “I never go [against] the truth.”
Coleman revealed Friday that fellow former Baylor receiver and good friend Kendall Wright, who plays for the Tennessee Titans, warned him the transition to the NFL wouldn’t be a cakewalk.
“He says it’s going to be hard,” Coleman said. “Nothing’s easy. I just have to go in with an open mind, and I really want to be great. So I’m just really priding myself on learning this playbook and getting everything together.”
Coleman ran a wide range of routes in high school, but only about four at Baylor. He acknowledged he’ll encounter a learning curve in the NFL, though he’s not worried.
“Any route you tell me to run, I can run it,” Coleman said. “It might not be perfect, but that’s why I’m here. I got [Al Saunders], the top receiver coach, teaching us, and I’m just taking it all in trying to get better.”
Jackson doesn’t consider Coleman’s lack of experience running routes a problem.
“I don’t see that because he’s so athletic,” Jackson said. “He has the ability to sink his hips and get in out of breaks, and obviously he’s very talented. I know that’s what everybody else was concerned about, but I don’t think that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Coleman hopes to emulate two receivers who are already feared in the AFC North: the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Antonio Brown and the Baltimore Ravens’ Steve Smith. He got fired up watching Brown highlights on YouTube on the eve of rookie minicamp and he was giddy when Smith recently followed him back on Twitter.
He also hopes to do justice to the No. 19 on his jersey, the same number legendary Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar donned decades ago.
“It’s a big honor to wear No. 19, and I take pride in that,” Coleman said. “And I’m going to go to work in it.”
Those goals won’t be attainable, though, if Coleman isn’t in shape. Not only is he sure he will be, but he’s also confident he’ll become a major playmaker for the Browns right away.
“They wouldn’t draft me in the first round if they didn’t think I could come in and help,” Coleman said. “I’m going to come in and do my best, try and learn everything and give myself the best opportunity to be at my best. I know Hue Jackson [is] going to put me in situations for me to be successful.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.