Getty Corey Coleman catches a pass during Giants training camp.
The New York Giants shocked many earlier this season by making wide receiver Corey Coleman a surprise roster cut. On Thursday they took the first step in righting that perceived wrong.
The former first-rounder joined the likes of two other familiar faces, defensive back Montre Hartage and tight end Rysen John, to visit and workout for the team ahead of Thursday night’s eventual 22-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
According to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, there seems to be a “good bet” that if healthy, all three could be added to the roster in some capacity sometime next week.
Hartage and John were both released from injured reserve in early September with injury settlements. There is a rule in place that prohibits the team who agreed to a settlement from re-signing that player until a minimum of six weeks has passed. Now that the timeframe has run its course, it looks as if both players are gearing up to be likely additions to New York’s practice squad.
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How Will Giants Handle Coleman Moving Forward?
While Hartage and John appear to be practice squad-only candidates, at least at the moment, Coleman’s placement on the roster could go either way. North Jersey Media Group’s Art Stapleton noted that current practice squad occupant, wide receiver Binjimen Victor, “has been with trainers” of late which could lead to a scenario where Coleman replaces the Ohio State rookie on Big Blue’s 16-man practice squad.
Then again, there’s also the prospect of Coleman taking on a gig in the team’s 53-man active roster. While Sterling Shepard did return from injury on Thursday, New York is still very clearly thin at wide receiver. Only four wideouts logged an offensive snap in Week 7. Austin Mack checked-in last, behind New York’s big-three, with just 12.
Not only would Coleman potentially add some juice to a receiving corps desperate for speed opposite Darius Slayton, but he’d also serve as a sizeable upgrade in the return game. The Giants don’t have a kick returner that ranks within the top-43 in the NFL in terms of return yards. Furthermore, the G-Men average the 20th-fewest yards per return average in football and are one of 15 teams to return a kickoff further than 34 yards this season.
Back in 2018, Coleman’s most recent healthy campaign, the former Biletnikoff Award winner ranked sixth league-wide with an impressive 26.0 yards per return average. His long return of 53 yards also ranked within the top-11 amongst all returners.
Was Coleman Working His Way Back to Full Strength?
It’s certainly plausible. While snippets out of training camp this summer highlighted Coleman as a standout, COVID-19 parameters greatly limited media availability at practice, not allowing us a full look at Coleman’s post-torn ACL form.
When the Giants surprisingly moved on from Coleman, filling his roster spot with Damion Ratley earlier this year, head coach Joe Judge harped on speed as a key factor as to why the team added Ratley, a puzzling comment on the surface.
For some background, Ratley posted a 4.45 40-yard dash at Texas A&M’s pro day two years ago. Coleman, on the other hand, blazed at Baylor’s pro day with a 4.37 forty back in 2016. While timed speed and game speed are clearly two different things, Coleman has had plenty of question marks surround him throughout his career, yet speed has never been one of them.
Could it have been that Coleman simply needed more time to get his body back to full speed? It would explain why a 26-year-old ex-first-rounder with added value on special teams has been sitting on the open market for seven weeks with essentially no bites.
All of this is hypothetical at the moment, although that won’t be the case much longer. With Coleman primed to return to an offense that has averaged a meager 178 passing yards over the past five weeks, chances are we will get to see exactly what the former top-15 pick has to offer.