NY Giants bring back Corey Coleman for 2020

The NY Giants are giving wideout Corey Coleman another shot to prove he can be a contributor for Big Blue.

To say Corey Coleman’s NFL career hasn’t gone to plan would be a massive understatement. After being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2016 and quickly flaming out, Coleman bounced around before seemingly finding a home with the NY Giants, only to end up tearing his ACL in 2019 when he had a shot to be an important part of the receiving core.

His NFL future was very much in doubt after the injury, but the Giants apparently saw enough out of him in 2018 to want to bring him back now on a one-year contract. Last year, Big Blue tendered Coleman at a $2M number, but it’s unlikely he’ll get that much in 2020.

The former #15 overall draft pick is still just 25-years-old and has blazing speed as he ran a 4.42 back at his combine.  Coleman was so good in college that we won the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s best receiver.

A true deep threat, Coleman’s skills never materialized with the Browns, something we’ve seen all too many times – particularly back in that 2016-2017 time frame. The former Baylor star hauled in just 56-131 passes during his time in Cleveland, good for a staggeringly awful 42%. His 12.9 yards-per-catch was respectable, though, and he hauled in at least one pass for over 40 yards in each season, showcasing his speed.

Coleman’s fate was ultimately sealed when he dropped a critical fourth-down pass against the Steelers during the Browns’ winless season in a game they were about to win. The drops have been the biggest issue during his career, which is weird because he displayed some of the best hands in college football at Baylor.

After bouncing around with the Patriots and Bills, Coleman carved out a legitimate niche as the NY Giants’ return man in 2018. It’s hard to make much of a difference on kick returns in this day and age, but Coleman sure did, running back 23 kicks for 598 yards, good for a 26.0 average.

Coleman figures to be penciled back into that kickoff return role while also having a beat on the fourth wideout spot on the depth chart. With Cody Core not offering any competition in that regard, it’ll be interesting to see if the Giants go into 2020 with six receivers on the roster.

Training camp and preseason will obviously have a lot to do with that, but for now, Coleman is only an injury away from playing a major role in this offense.