Cleveland Browns welcome Shon Coleman back to the field
By Thomas Moore
Cleveland Browns rookie right tackle Shon Coleman finally made his on-field debut after missing the entire off-season with a knee injury.
As soon as Mitchell Schwartz signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cleveland Browns knew they had a hole to fill at right tackle.
Executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown had an opportunity to fix the mess left by former general manager Ray Farmer, who was more interested in handing wide receiver Dwayne Bowe a $9 million parting gift than in signing the game’s best right tackle, but once the door was closed on Schwartz the Browns turned to the 2016 NFL Draft to fix the problem.
In the third round the Browns selected Auburn offensive tackle Shon Coleman, a second-team All-SEC selection for the Tigers. While Coleman has the kind of pedigree teams look for in offensive lineman – Texas A&M outside linebacker Myles Garrett called Coleman the best lineman he has faced – the Browns have had to wait as Coleman has been recovering from surgery to repair a torn medial collateral ligament.
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The wait is finally over, however, as Coleman has been taking his reps during the first two practices of training camp.
“It feels great being back here with the guys,” Coleman said on Saturday. “We have a great team, a lot of good character guys, a lot of good veterans to bring me along. I’m excited to be back out here.
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“I’m pretty excited. My big thing is not to go out there and just get too wild – work my technique, have an awareness and understanding of the offense and do what I got to do. It’s very exciting. It’s been since late December or January since I put some pads on so I’m pretty excited to be out there with the guys.”
Coleman missed all of the off-season work, which certainly has not helped his development as he needs as much work as possible as he transitions from Auburn’s spread offense to an NFL offense.
However, as his only real competition is Alvin Bailey, who only made eight starts in three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Coleman has an opportunity to open the season as the starter provided he can make up for lost time.
“I think we have to be smart – because he is coming off of something that we want to make sure that he’s out there and competing every chance he’s there,” head coach Hue Jackson told the team’s website. “Obviously he’s a good athlete – he’s long, has long arms … there’s some catching up he has to do, and we’ll take the time to make sure that he gets there.”
Now that Coleman has made it back onto the field, he is not ready to give up his spot without a fight.
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“My goal is to get better,” Coleman said. “Just go out here and let everything fall in place. Learn the offense, do whatever I can to make this team better. I still got to work my butt off just like everybody else is doing.”