The New England Patriots addition of former Cleveland Browns 15th overall pick and wide receiver Corey Coleman shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans of the team because the transaction follows a familiar pattern.
An early draft pick burns out with a different team while still on their rookie deal. Bill Belichick and Nick Caserio thought highly of the player coming out of the draft and thinks the player might be more successful in a different situation. The Patriots add the former top draft pick with varying levels of success.
There are plenty of previous examples of these trades, but the Patriots seemed to really commit to this style of talent acquisition in 2012 when they acquired cornerback Aqib Talib from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the final year of Talib’s contract.