Shon Coleman lost his starting spot on the offensive line to Austin Corbett. Is there a way they can both still help the Browns?
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One up, one down, one starting, one maybe gone.
Austin Corbett and Shon Coleman were separated by five lockers inside FirstEnergy Stadium after the Browns' second preseason game Thursday night and heading opposite ways.
Does it have to be this way with the Browns, every success story matched by a failure?
Receiver Rashard Higgins has impressed this camp, but Corey Coleman was dumped. The fact that Corbett has seized a starting job at left guard, his rise necessitated by Shon Coleman losing his starting spot at left tackle and Joel Bitonio sliding from guard to tackle, does that mean this Coleman is also done in Cleveland?
Corbett, the rookie second-round pick from Nevada with a tattoo of an eagle and his last name on his right upper back, improved ten-fold from the preseason opener to what he showed Thursday. He consistently sealed off blocks in the run game and looked for work in pass protection, without glaring failures of misunderstanding.
The father of his best friend texted after the game to give him a hard time, and Corbett laughed because he knew he improved. Can a 22-year-old glow after a preseason game?
He's figuring it out, admitting he's finally dispatching the tackle thinking of his college days (he started 49 games at left tackle at Nevada) and getting in guard mode. He had to.
The Browns need him. They really need him.
"They need the best person they can get, whether that's you or someone else," Corbett said. "That's the nature of the game we play. I'm doing everything I can to make sure I'm one of those guys at the end of the day. You've got to have that mindset where you get locked into a position and you never let go."
Coleman did let go, the starting left tackle job that was handed to him by the retirement of Joe Thomas ripped away by Hue Jackson early in camp. Jackson didn't like what he saw and acted quickly to shift Bitonio and promote Corbett. Coleman went from first-team left tackle to second-team right tackle and could fall further still.
The Browns signed former No. 2 overall pick Greg Robinson in June and have worked undrafted free agent Desmond Harrison at second-team tackle as well. Coleman was old coming out of Auburn, so entering his third NFL season he's already 26. But he started all 16 games at right tackle a year ago. Chris Hubbard is locked into the right tackle job now, and Bitonio-Corbett is working on the left side.
So maybe this is progress - a starter one year is in danger of not making the team the next, because maybe the Browns are that much better.
They clearly aren't waiting on Coleman.
"If you want the job, whatever job you want, you have to go get it," Jackson said of Coleman on Sunday. "You have to work at it. We have to play the best players. It's all about performance. It is not about somebody's feelings or any of that. This is a performance-based business, and Shon understands that. If he wants the job back, he has to go back and earn it."
Baker Mayfield got blown up on a sack behind the second team Thursday on a miscommunication that looked like Coleman's fault, as he disengaged with a defender to pick up an outside blitzer that running back Nick Chubb was ready to handle. The player Coleman let go then buried the Browns' No. 1 pick.
But playing with a second-team line that clearly struggled, Coleman wasn't a glaring weakness every play. Another blitzer flushed Mayfield in the fourth quarter after shooting past Coleman, but when engaged, Coleman wasn't constantly losing individual matchups.
It's not hard to see Coleman as the odd man out here, if the Browns believe more in Robinson and Harrison as their tackle depth. Coleman's status as a previous starter or third-round pick in 2016 won't matter.
Is Coleman concerned about making the roster?
"No, I don't even worry about that," he told me after Thursday's game. "I worry about what I can do on the field."
Maybe the ship is sailing on another Coleman on Cleveland, but in an ideal world, I think the Browns would need both Corbett and Coleman. Yes, this rookie looks ready. But yes, this former starter who's only in year three, he's still worth something, too.
"I know I'm a guy that has a lot of ability, and obviously I can play both sides at tackle," Coleman said. "My big thing is just doing whatever the team needs me to do."
He doesn't sound like a guy following the Corey Coleman plan, as shown on Hard Knocks, of asking for a trade after a demotion to second team. He still can be needed, even after losing a starting job.
"I'm guessing so," Coleman said. "I'm still developing. I've got a lot of room for improvement. But at this point, I'm just trying to get better and let things fall in place however they may fall in place."
As the Browns clearly improve their starting talent, depth, especially on both lines, remains an issue.
So let Corbett serve as an answer.
"Come Week 1, I'm going to make sure that my name is coming out in that first starting five," Corbett said.
But I'm hoping Coleman can provide an answer about depth as a former starter worth keeping rather than as another former failed high pick sent packing.
"I know I can show a lot more," Coleman said, "by just developing into that player that I envision myself being."
Finding a success story without packaging it with a failure? That's when you'll know the Browns are headed somewhere.
