Finding the Fits: Cancer survivor Shon Coleman a 'sure' things for Browns

Finding the Fits: Cancer survivor Shon Coleman a 'sure' things for Browns – CBSSports.com

(This is part of a series — Finding the Fits — in which NFLDraftScout.com will review the more intriguing picks made during the 2016 NFL Draft. The goal is to identify one relatively unheralded player per team who appears to be a good schematic fit and, therefore, more likely to be a surprise contributor early in his pro career.)

Cleveland’s best fit: OT Shon Coleman, Auburn, No. 76 overall

Given that the Browns have finished last in the AFC North for the past five consecutive years, rebuilding is a common phrase in Cleveland.

New head coach Hue Jackson and front office decision-makers Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta have promised changes, incorporating a combination of old-school football experience (Jackson) and new-age analytics (Brown, DePodesta) to spark the latest roster overhaul. If there is one thing that remains in place in the rough-and-tumble AFC North, however, it is that games are won and lost along the line of scrimmage.

The Browns elected to let former starting center Alex Mack and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz walk in free agency. The Browns are expected to slide second-year pro Cameron Erving over to center to take over for Mack. Right tackle, however, could be an open competition between veterans John Greco, Austin Pasztor, Michael Bowie and Coleman, a former star left tackle at Auburn, whose size, physicality and toughness on and off the field intrigued scouts.

At 6-foot-6, 313 pounds, the well-built and long-armed (35 1/8 inches) Coleman certainly looks the part of an NFL right tackle. He is surprisingly quick off the ball and is highly aggressive, latching onto defenders and driving them off the line of scrimmage. If Jackson hopes to run the ball as consistently as he did in his previous stops with the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders, he has a blocker in Coleman with the physical traits to accomplish this goal. Coleman was frequently asked to provide the key blocks at Auburn, a team which ran the ball (587 attempts) nearly twice as often as it passed (306 attempts) a year ago.

Coleman is, however, a work in progress from a pass-blocking perspective — something which should be a concern given the unknowns at quarterback for this club. Veteran Robert Griffin III is expected to ultimately win the starting job but he is only signed on a two-year deal. Josh McCown is a serviceable quarterback but is not the club’s long-term answer at the position and there are plenty who question whether rookie Cody Kessler can take over this role, as well.

With all three quarterbacks taking snaps, Cleveland’s already reshuffled offensive line has yet another barrier to overcome. The mental toughness needed to persevere through this transition is nothing for Coleman, who rebuilt himself into an NFL prospect after a well-documented recovery from leukemia while at Auburn.

Following the draft, Brown acknowledged that Cleveland placed a priority on adding self-starters with a chip on their shoulder.

Shon Coleman is a great run blocker who needs work in the passing game. USATSI

“Coming off our recent history here, it’s really important, for a period of time, to find higher character guys than we might normally look at,” Brown said. “Anytime you are trying to build something you want to be successful, it’s important to focus on the traits to form a real young core of leaders. In particular, after some of the experiences our locker room has endured, not just the last one or two years, but the last three or four years.”

Coleman, along with former walk-ons turned All-Americans Carl Nassib and Joe Schobert and the rest of Cleveland’s new cast of high character compatriots, will be attempting to do precisely that.

Other thoughts on the Browns’ 2016 draft class:

With the Browns having failed to qualify for the playoffs since 2002, certainly the club deserves credit for attempting to completely overhaul the roster. Five trades — including one with the Dolphins to bring in veteran cornerback Jamar Taylor — resulted in 14 rookies being added to the roster, tied for the most since the NFL switched to a seven round draft in 1994.

Most of these picks came in the middle rounds — where scouts prior to the draft told me the 2016 crop held extra value than most years — and no club took more chances in these rounds than the Browns, which used an eye-popping 11 picks in the third, fourth and fifth rounds alone. With more darts being thrown at the board, the Browns theoretically have a greater shot at unearthing some hidden gems.

Success in the NFL, however, is not necessarily about the number of quality players on a team but how good the team’s top players are and what positions they play. Should Jared Goff and especially Carson Wentz wind up starring in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, few may remember years from now the bounty of picks Cleveland acquired in their multiple trade-downs. Of course, if those two QBs prove to be busts and some of Cleveland’s middle and later round picks (including those in the 2017 draft) pan out, the Browns should be applauded.

I love the quantity of prospects Cleveland added (and am quite high on several of the players selected), but I’m skeptical that this rookie crop will turn around the franchise the way I believe a potential franchise quarterback (like Goff or Wentz) could have.

Of course, the Browns did draft a quarterback this year in former Southern California star Cody Kessler and by all appearances, the 6-foot-1, 224 pound rookie was hand selected by Jackson, a trusted quarterback evaluator and developer. Kessler possesses many of the attributes necessary for success in Jackson’s offense, including the intelligence, mobility, toughness and good accuracy to short and intermediate levels. The concern I (and, frankly, many others) had about Kessler is simply arm strength, or rather a lack thereof.

I’m a firm believer that to enjoy long-term success playing in the outdoor stadiums of the AFC North, quarterbacks must possess greater size and arm strength than they might need in some of the NFL’s other divisions and venues. Kessler’s career touchdown to interception ratio of 88-19 is impressive as is his completion percentage of 67.5 — the best ever at USC. Kessler was surrounded by overwhelming talent with the Trojans, however, and played a season and a half under Steve Sarkisian, whose up-tempo offense had previously resulted in impressive numbers for Jake Locker and Keith Price at Washington, each of whom struggled to turn this college production into NFL success.

If the goal was to simply draft the best college players, the Browns likely accomplished this feat. First-round pick Corey Coleman won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver with an NCAA-best 20 touchdowns in 2015. Day 2 picks Emmanuel Ogbah (Big 12) and Carl Nassib (Big Ten) were voted the Defensive Linemen of the Year for their respective conferences, with Nassib earning the Ted Hendricks Award (nation’s top defensive end) and Lombardi Award (top overall lineman) after leading the country in sacks (15.5).

The Browns used later round picks on wideout Rashard Higgins and middle linebacker Scooby Wright III, who weren’t as productive in 2015 but were statistically the best at their respective positions a year earlier. That said, for all of the production these players enjoyed at college, scouts had concerns about virtually all of them projecting to the next level, including even the speedster Coleman who was not asked to run a full route tree at Baylor and may find vertical routes on the grass of FirstEnergy Stadium tougher to accelerate on than the track of turf in which he starred at Waco.

Ogbah tested off the charts at the combine and was successful throughout his career at Oklahoma State but he is not a particularly instinctive player, which could be an issue given that he’s being asked to switch positions to outside linebacker in Cleveland. Nassib was dominant in 2015 but like Kessler and former UCLA wideout Jordan Payton and Baylor offensive lineman Spencer Drango, he failed to stand out at the Senior Bowl, raising concerns that perhaps their production in college will not translate into success in the NFL.

Cleveland’s 2016 draft class: