Terrelle Pryor

The door to becoming an NFL receiver is wide open for Terrelle Pryor.

(Joshua Gunter / cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Talkin' about the Cleveland Browns and their receivers corps.

1. It's hard to imagine the Browns ever having a group of receivers this young ... and this inexperienced. As training camp opens next Friday, the Browns have only two receivers with any sort of NFL track record. Andrew Hawkins has 176 career receptions, and next on the list is Taylor Gabriel with 64. No one else has more than 26 receptions in the NFL.

2. Hawkins is in his sixth season. But he played only eight games last season, twice suffering concussions. The 5-foot-7, 180-pounder is 30 years old and Jackson is counting on him to be a leader among the receivers.

3. Gabriel averaged 17.3 yards per catch in 2015, with 36 receptions. He dropped to an 8.6 average in 2016. He went from being a deep threat to nearly irrelevant as he caught only 28 passes last season. Gabriel will have to impress to make the team.

4. So the Browns two most experienced receivers are in the 5-foot-7 range. They need Hawkins to stay healthy, and they need the new coaches to figure out what happened to Gabriel last season. His decline was alarming. He was credited with four dropped passes last season. On the Browns, only Brian Hartline (5) had more. The NFL is very kind when it comes to dropped passes, it has to be a very poor play by the receiver to count against him.

5. The makeup of the roster when it comes to receivers is by design. The Browns are determined to build with younger players. To do that, opportunity has to be created. Is Brian Hartline better than some of the rookie/young receivers? Yes. But the Browns released the 29-year-old Hartline because they want to find out if they have players who can help right now -- and grow with the team.

6. The most exciting receiver in all the minicamps was rookie Corey Coleman. No one else was a close second to the first-round pick from Baylor. Hue Jackson likes to gush about some players, but the new Browns coach has a reason to be excited by Coleman. Here's what he said: "He's really shown why we drafted him in the first round. He is a tremendous talent. If he keeps working like he is and stays as humble as he is ... he has the great desire to be a great player."

7. Remember when Jackson criticized Coleman at the opening of rookie minicamp for being out of shape? Part of it was Coleman's failure to be in NFL shape -- a common problem for many rookies when they go straight from being drafted to a pro minicamp. But Jackson also admitted, "I ride him pretty hard because he has so much ability. I want to get it out of him."

8. I saw Coleman catch a few passes and thought, "Wow, this guy is good." He showed good hands and that special burst of speed and ability to change directions that you find in NFL playmakers. He won the 2015 Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in college football and he looked like it in the spring.

9. Then there's Terrelle Pryor. Can he actually be a receiver? No one is sure. Jackson likes the size and the athleticism of the 6-foot-4, 235-pounder who was a star quarterback at Ohio State. The coach already has drawn up plays to put the ball in the hands of Pryor and let him run -- short passes, reverses, etc.

10. I mentioned Pryor after Coleman because Pryor has the explosiveness. As Jackson said, "Terrelle Pryor flashed" in the spring. The team is desperate for playmakers and Pryor has the raw ability to become one.

11. So the Browns want to find out about Pryor. And they want to have plenty of snaps available for Coleman. They'll sometimes use running back Duke Johnson split out as a wide receiver. Jackson loves the idea of finding different ways to throw passes to Johnson.

12. Here's a list of names: Marlon Moore, Rannell Hall and Darius Jennings. Moore is a key special teams player. He also has shown some ability as a receiver. I like Jennings, an undrafted free agent from Virginia. He played four games at the end of last season, catching 14 passes. He's a possession receiver.

13. Hall has gained some attention from the coaches. He had a solid career at Central Florida as a receiver/kick returner and has decent size at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds. Hall was not drafted in 2015. He signed with the Browns last season, but didn't play until a brief appearance in the final game. He caught 49 passes for 500 yards as a senior in 2014 with Central Florida.

14. It's possible the Browns could find a viable receiver from that list of Hall, Jennings and Moore. They also signed Dennis Parks, an undrafted free agent from Rice. He was signed on May 20, so he didn't play that much in minicamps.





15. They drafted three other receivers besides Coleman -- Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins and Jordan Payton. They were picked in the fourth and fifth rounds. That was another reason Hartline was let go and why they didn't sign any notable free agent receivers. If you plan to draft several receivers, then opportunity has to be created.

16. After Coleman, Higgins was the most impressive receiver this spring. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from Colorado State is indeed a bit thin. He is not exceptionally fast. I asked him how he'd describe himself as a receiver, and he said: "I'm a catch-the-ball receiver." He's Colorado State's all-time leader in receptions. He looked like he knows what he's doing when the ball is in the air and he's not afraid to go over the middle for a catch in the teeth of the defense.

17. Ricardo Louis is the fourth-rounder from Auburn. At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, he has the size of an NFL receiver. He also has some pure speed. He made a few nice catches on long passes. But he caught only 98 passes in three starting seasons at Auburn. The Tigers were a run-first team when he was there. Patience will be needed to find out what Louis can do at the NFL level.

18. Payton is a mystery because the fifth-rounder from UCLA missed virtually all of the minicamps and OTAs. He was finishing up his degree at UCLA. NFL rules mandated that he stay at UCLA until his studies were finished. "We understood that when we drafted him," said Jackson. "We were not going to (pass up a chance to) draft a guy because of it."

19. Jackson acknowledged Payton is "back a long way" compared to other players. But the Browns also know Payton is smart. He has the UCLA record for career receptions. He seems in the same category as Higgins, a guy who achieved a lot in college but doesn't have the eye-popping athleticism that impresses scouts.

20. The Browns have 11 receivers in camp ... as of now. They probably will bring in more as other players are cut. There are the two "veterans" in Hawkins and Gabriel ... a former quarterback (Pryor) ... four draft picks ... four undrafted types looking for a chance.





ABOUT JOSH GORDON

When I hear about Josh Gordon making more steps in the direction of returning to the NFL, I try not to be cynical.

He has been suspended in each of the last three seasons because of failing the league's drug tests. That problem dates back to college. He played no games last season, only five games in 2015. So he has missed 27-of-32 games.

He also was suspended for the first two games in 2013, the season he led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards. He caught passes from Brandon Weeden, Jason Campbell and Brian Hoyer as the Browns quarterbacks couldn't stay healthy.

Browns fans know the story. He's extremely gifted with the ideal NFL size for a receiver: 6-foot-3, 225 pounds.

He's only 25, but he has wasted so many chances. The Browns aren't about to just cut him, but they will want to spend a lot of time with him before putting him back on the roster.

And that assumes the league allows him to play again -- something that is still pending.