Wide receiver Sammie Coates has a lot of raw, promising talent, but he could never put it together with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now he’ll try to realize that potential with the Cleveland Browns after he was traded Saturday for a 2018 sixth-round pick.
Steelers trade Sammie Coates to Browns on final cuts day
Coates ends a disappointing two-year run in Pittsburgh by netting the Steelers a sixth-round pick.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Along with Coates, the Browns will receive Pittsburgh’s sixth-round pick in 2019.
Coates barely played in his rookie season, appearing in just seven games and being a healthy scratch for most of the year. He got a chance at more playing time in 2016, when Martavis Bryant’s year-long suspension opened up a spot in the starting lineup.
However, a finger injury sapped most of Coates’ production and he ended up falling behind Eli Rogers. Coates ended 2016 with just 21 receptions on 49 targets, an abysmal 42.9 percent catch rate. In the offseason, the Steelers got Bryant back from suspension, drafted JuJu Smith-Schuster in the second round, and signed Justin Hunter, further marginalizing Coates on the depth chart.
Coates still has some potential at age 24, and he offers value as a deep threat, averaging 20.7 yards per catch last season. But injuries have been a major problem for Coates, who was bothered by the hand injury in 2016 and underwent a knee scope this year, forcing him to start training camp on the PUP list.
The Browns have been building for the future, but can use more options at wide receiver. Josh Gordon’s future has been up in the air for a long time and the team is still developing second-year receiver Corey Coleman. After that it’s players like Kenny Britt, Rashard Higgins and Ricardo Louis battling for reps.
Coates can join that battle and try to become the player the Steelers thought he’d be when the team drafted him in the third round in 2015.
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