Brandon Coleman can be a 6’6 225-pound wrecking machine at WR for the Saints

With Marques Colston’s retirement, the departure of tight end Ben Watson and the Jimmy Graham trade last offseason, this year’s New Orleans Saints offense is going to look different from just two years ago. Oh, they still have Drew Brees pulling the trigger, which means they will be a threat no matter what, but who is going to be on the other end of his passes and how productive they will be is an open question.

A somewhat under-the-radar guy who I think is ready to really break out this year and help take up the slack is Brandon Coleman. I know other receivers like Brandin Cooks -- who’s been impressive in his first two seasons -- and rookie Michael Thomas will get a lot of the attention heading into the season, but Coleman may be the most intriguing player on the entire roster.

First of all, he’s 6’6 and 225 pounds. Second, third and fourth, he’s 6’6 and 225 pounds.

Needless to say, receivers of that size ... well, I’m not even sure how many of them there are or have ever been, but I’m pretty sure it’s not more than a handful. He doesn’t have blazing speed, but the 4.56 he ran at the Combine out of college is not exactly “slow,” either. This guy has the potential to be an absolute monster, especially in the kind of offense the Saints run.

Coleman is still not quite a finished product, which is why he was stuck on the practice squad his whole rookie season in 2014 and only played sparingly last season. He is still a little stiff getting in and out of his breaks, which you kind of expect from a guy that tall. He still ended up hauling in 30 balls with a 15.1 yards-per-catch average and two touchdowns, which wasn’t all that shabby considering he didn’t get many targets.

Many of those catches were of the deep ball variety, too. His straight line speed looked pretty good and his hands were at least adequate. I did see some drops, but they were generally of the concentration type where he was trying to run before securing the catch first, rather than just having bad hands. When Coleman looked the ball all the way in, he usually caught it smoothly. I think he can clean up the drops relatively easily.

What was interesting to me about watching his film from last year is here you have a guy who is that tall who also has pretty long arms, but the Saints didn’t seem to throw him many jump balls, not even in the red zone. Some of that may have just been Brees not having complete confidence in him yet.

The Saints will almost have to at least try to throw some to him this year, just to see what the kid can do. How would most corners even defend a jump ball one-on-one with a 6’6 receiver? Even if the receiver is only average, I’d imagine a lot of defensive backs would just panic and commit pass interference rather than giving him the opportunity to go up and pluck the ball out of the air. Simply put, Coleman has a good chance of being a great red zone weapon for the Saints this season.

After a year of actually getting on the field and seeing what the speed of the game is like and what Brees wants his receivers to do, Brandon Coleman will be more prepared to make an impact full-time this season.

As the saying goes, “you can’t coach size,” and if the Saints take full advantage of the physical tools Coleman has, I expect his touchdowns to go waaaayyyy up and for him to be a legitimate deep threat for them as well. After all, somebody has to make up for the lost production from Colston and Watson. It might as well be Coleman.