Corey Coleman, WR Baylor

Height: 5’10”

Weight: 190 lbs

40 yard dash: 4.30 (unofficial)

NFL Comparison: Brandin Cooks, Doug Baldwin

Scouting Notes: Baylor’s Corey Coleman is one of the best athletes entering the draft this season despite his unimpressive size. He plays bigger than his 5’10’’, 190 lbs frame might suggest, often besting inexperienced but certainly larger, long Big 12 corners for the ball in the air amidst heavy traffic. With his quick feet and ability to halt his momentum and change direction on a dime, only to explode downfield once more, Coleman can seemingly take the top off any play whether the route dictates it or not. This lends itself to the young man’s uncanny ability to score from anywhere as evidenced by his 20 TDs on 76 receptions in 2015 — his willingness to go up and get the ball along with his shakes make him a prime red-zone target despite his size in similar ways to Antonio Brown. Coleman isn’t a polished receiver though, he really hasn’t had to be, and he wasn’t really called to block very often at Baylor, so we’ve yet to see if that’s a real deficiency. Coleman also had a drop rate of almost 12% at Baylor, which is concerning. For reference, Ted Ginn had a 10.5% drop rate this year, and you can remember a lot of those misses. We’ll be very interested to see what Coleman’s hand measurement comes out at during our coverage of the NFL combine later this month.

 

Fantasy Outlook: Coleman isn’t going to take anyone by surprise this draft — he’s already high on many a leader board as a high-upside “catch and run” specialist. The fact that he’s a more than capable kick returner should also prove valuable. I just hope he doesn’t fall into that category exclusively, which I could see happening for a team that doesn’t know how to use him. There’s also the chance that he could be another casualty of the Art Briles system which seems to produce athletic but “NFL soft” receivers who never fully live up to their potential. Coleman’s tape seems to indicate a more aggressive type of WR than we’re used to seeing from Baylor though. I’m almost tempted to compare his NFL outlook to that of Doug Baldwin, another smaller but feisty WR who catches a lot of TDs, but he’s just too quick and explosive for that. He’s more of a Brandin Cooks — with a little more fight in him.