Browns trade Corey Coleman to Bills for draft pick

The Cleveland Browns traded wide receiver Corey Coleman to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a late-round draft pick, a source informed of the situation told NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport on Sunday.
Rapoport reported Monday the compensation is a 2020 seventh-round pick.
The Bills and Browns later confirmed the trade. Buffalo released wide receiver Quan Bray to make room for Coleman on the roster.
ESPN first reported the deal.
Coleman, a former first-round pick, was battling for the Browns' No. 2 spot with Josh Gordon absent from camp. It remains unclear when Gordon will return as he continues to deal with off-field health issues.
The deal is another high-profile move for the Browns under John Dorsey, who has been very bullish in the trade market since taking over as general manager. Earlier this offseason, the Browns acquired Landry from the Dolphins and quarterback Tyrod Taylor from the Bills as part of a roster revamp aimed at dissolving the bad memory of last year's winless campaign.
The question now is: Who will fill in that important No. 3 (or potentially No. 2) role for the Browns? Rookie Antonio Callawayhas showed flashes of promise in training camp so far, but if Gordon remains out, Cleveland will enter the season with a serious lack of depth at the position.
Dez Bryant could be a possibility for the Browns. Last month, Dorsey said the team talked about the possibility of signing the receiver, who remains unsigned following his release by the Dallas Cowboys in April.
For the Bills, they get a wideout who has struggled to live up to his pre-draft grade since being selected 15th overall in 2016. In 19 games, he's tallied 56 receptions for 718 yards and five touchdowns. Last year, he missed seven games because of a broken hand and was limited to 23 catches for 305 yards and two TDs.
Coleman gets a fresh chance to prove himself in a relatively thin receiving corps that will be working with a new starting quarterback. He's expected to battle for the Bills' No. 2 receiving spot with Zay Jones, who was activated off the non-football injury list Sunday after having offseason knee surgery.

The trade is yet another reminder of the slew of first-round picks who never found success in Cleveland. None of the Browns' first-round selections from 2012-16 (Trent Richardson, Brandon Weeden, Barkevious Mingo, Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel, Danny Shelton, Cameron Erving, Coleman) are still with the team.

Any offseason discussion about the Jacksonville Jaguars competing for a Super Bowl championship comes with a caveat: What about the quarterback?
Blake Bortles is coming off perhaps his best pro season in 2017, completing a career-high 60.2 percent of his passes with 21 TD's and a career-low 13 INTs. Yet, his game-managing style, with high variance in performances, leaves a lot to be desired at football's most important position -- his 87 yards passing, 88 yards rushing performance in a playoff victory against Buffalo is Exhibit A.
Despite the struggles, Bortles has good reason to believe he'll top his 2017 performance. Mainly, he's finally healthy after undergoing offseason surgery. The 26-year-old had been dealing with a wrist injury for much of the past two seasons.

 

"When you do not have to worry about going to rehab or going to get treatment, you have to make sure you warm it up the right way, you have to take anti-inflammatory [medication] and do all of that stuff. ... It is just a lot of process to be able to go out there and do what you should be able to do without any pain," Bortles said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN. "To be able to do that now finally is pretty awesome."