Cleveland Browns taking right approach with Corey Coleman

The Cleveland Browns are being cautious with wide receiver Corey Coleman’s hamstring, which is a smart course of action given his injury history.

Rookie wide receiver Corey Coleman has wasted little time in training camp displaying the big-play ability that led the Cleveland Browns to select him in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

Unfortunately, last Friday’s performance in the team’s scrimmage may be the last that Browns fans see of Coleman for a while.

Coleman missed his third consecutive practice on Tuesday with a hamstring injury and it remains to be seen if he plays Friday night when the Browns open the preseason with a game against the Green Bay Packers.

“I think he’ll be fine, but again, I’m going to be very cautious with our players.” – head coach Hue Jackson

“There’s a chance he can play. Probably, we’ll go up through (Wednesday) before I make a decision about that,” head coach Hue Jackson said. “I think he’ll be fine, but again, I’m going to be very cautious with our players. Not just with him but with any of them that have whether it’s these soft-tissue injuries, we’ll make sure that we always do the right thing and make sure that we get our guys ready to play.”

Coleman isn’t the only wide receiver to miss practice time with a hamstring injury. DeVante Parker of the Miami Dolphins returned to practice for the first time on Tuesday after being out since Aug. 1 with a hamstring injury.

Alshon Jeffery of the Chicago Bears, who missed seven games in 2015 because of four different soft-tissue injuries, also returned to the practice field this week after missing most of last week with hamstring issues.

It wouldn’t be a surprise, then, if the Browns don’t see Coleman back on the practice field until sometime next week. After today the Browns don’t practice again until Sunday, which would allow Coleman to have a full week of rest. Which may not be such a bad thing given his injury history while at Baylor.

Coleman was a redshirt as a freshman due to hamstring injuries; missed the first three games and only made six starts as a sophomore because of a pulled hamstring; and dealt with a groin injury last season that caused him to miss Baylor’s bowl game and led to off-season surgery for a sports hernia.

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His latest setback, which Coleman describes as nothing more than “fatigue,” could be the result of the demands of an NFL training camp.

“If you asked him … he’s never worked as hard in his life,” wide receivers coach Al Saunders told cleveland.com. “He’s never had to run as far or as hard. He’s never had to be involved in the running game or be a blocker, so he’s learning a lot of different phases of the game. The most important thing for us is to make sure he doesn’t break down physically so he’d be unable to do the things we want him to do when he’s healthy, so this is more of a precaution than anything.”

The silver lining in Coleman’s absence, combined with wide receiver Josh Gordon being out with a quad injury, is that it has given the other young wide receivers on the roster extra time to work on their game.

And it is still early enough in camp that the Browns can give Coleman an extra day or two of rest to ensure he is healed and that this doesn’t become a recurring issue during the regular season.

Next: Al Saunders excited by Browns wide receivers

Given his history at Baylor, however, this may not be the last time we hear about Coleman and his hamstrings.

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