BEREA: Browns rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman aims to emulate Baltimore Ravens five-time Pro Bowler Steve Smith and Pittsburgh Steelers four-time Pro Bowler Antonio Brown.
Well, Coleman already reminds a veteran teammate of Smith, who’s had more than 1,000 yards receiving in eight of his 15 NFL seasons and been a first-team All-Pro selection twice.
“Corey Coleman is an incredible talent. He reminds me a lot of Steve Smith, which is in my opinion one of the top-three receivers to ever play the game of football,” Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins said Thursday during training camp. “I’ve always been a huge Steve Smith fan. But he has a lot of that skill set. He has to work on some of his technique stuff, but his effort is what’s special to me because a lot of time young guys, they don’t always come in knowing that above all else, give effort.
“Your effort and your talent will mend the wound of what you don’t know technique-wise until you figure it out because the NFL is a different game, especially in the offense he was in at Baylor. But Corey has come in and worked his butt off, whether it’s blocking backside, whether it’s finishing to the end zone, whether it’s being the playmaker he was brought here to be, and I’m excited for what his career is going to be.”
Smith is a noted trash-talker. And apparently Coleman, the 15th overall pick in this year’s draft, likes to mix it up, too. After Coleman beat cornerback Justin Gilbert in a one-on-one drill Tuesday, he gave Gilbert an earful as he walked back from the end zone. The two had to be separated and were reprimanded by coach Hue Jackson.
Coleman has an edge to him, a competitive fire, and it’s evident when the siren sounds during practice to signal live-tackling periods.
“He’s scored a bunch when we’ve had some of this live stuff,” quarterback Josh McCown said. “He’s done a really good job. He’s coming in and working. He’s learning the system and the terminology. A lot of times, I think what you see with young guys is while they’re learning, their skill set will diminish a little bit. In other words, you won’t see them be as fast as they can be.
“The cool thing about Corey is he’s still learning, but when the ball touches his hands, that’s exactly why you picked him. That’s impressive to me because he’s shown that, in that sense, it’s not too big for him when the bullets start flying and we start playing.”
Coleman, 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, made one of the most dynamic plays of camp Tuesday when he caught a short pass from Robert Griffin III, broke cornerback Jamar Taylor’s attempted tackle, then used a juke move to make safety Sean Baker miss on his way into the end zone.
“He can score the ball,” associate head coach-offense Pep Hamilton said. “He caught a hitch route down inside the red-zone area, he made two guys miss and he scored the football. That’s what we’re going to need him to do. We need a big-play threat or two or three on the perimeter, and we feel like he’s the guy who can do those things.”
Roster moves
Browns backup offensive lineman Michael Bowie has retired. The Browns placed him on the reserve/retired list Friday and signed undrafted rookie defensive lineman Kenton Adeyemi.
The Browns claimed Bowie, 24, off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks in August 2014. But he never appeared in a regular-season game with the Browns. He spent each of the past two seasons on injured reserve with shoulder injuries.
As a rookie seventh-round draft pick in 2013, Bowie started eight of his nine games with the Seahawks.
Adeyemi, 6-foot-3 and 279 pounds, entered the NFL in May when he signed with the Chicago Bears, who waived him in June. Adeyemi started 23 of the 30 games in which he appeared at the University of Connecticut and compiled 63 tackles and three sacks.
Shock to system
Defensive coordinator Ray Horton was on vacation last month when the news of starting end Desmond Bryant suffering a season-ending torn pectoral muscle stunned him.
“Immediately you go into survival mode,” Horton said. “What do you do? How are we going to get better? What do we do? He was a key part of our defense. Now with his injury, just like anybody else’s injury, you have to adjust because nobody is going to wait for you.
“If you ask me, ‘What are we doing?’ as you guys watch practice and we’re moving guys around, I would use the term ‘kaleidoscope.’ When you turn it, you’re going to get a different picture. I want us to have guys that are interchangeable because I don’t know what we’re going to be yet.”
Hence the coaching staff’s decision to turn the focus of rookie second-round pick Emmanuel Ogbah from outside linebacker to end.
Kicking duel
The Browns have found legitimate competition for incumbent kicker Travis Coons. It’s Patrick Murray, who made 20-of-24 field goals with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2014 before sitting out last season with an injury.
“A guy that kicks the ball very consistent,” special teams coordinator Chris Tabor said of Murray. “I think he has a good kickoff leg, also. A guy that’s obviously been successful in the league before he got injured, but I see no ill effects from his injury. He’s totally healthy, hitting the ball well, quick to the football, does a nice job getting it up, so he’s doing a nice job.”
Meanwhile, Coons, who made 28-of-32 field goals last season but had four blocked, has worked on getting more lift on his kicks by practicing with a special net.
“We take our net out there. We call it Ivan, Ivan the Terrible,” Tabor said. “What we did is we took Des Bryant, and he got as tall as he could, and we made the perfect height, which I think that’s helped us. Then we’ve backed it up as if we have kind of got knocked back a little bit and kind of put it in the worst-case scenario that we can. But his lift has been really good.”
Ivan, though, isn’t Coons’ biggest threat. It’s Murray.
“If he does better than what Travis does,” Tabor said, “then obviously there’s talk.”
Swapping signatures
Running backs coach and run game coordinator Kirby Wilson has been asking fans who attend camp to sign his shirt every time he gives them an autograph. He wears the shirt during practice and plans to frame it after camp.
“I kind of flip the script on them,” he said. “I’ve got about maybe 30 or 40 signatures.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.