NFL Draft Bust Watch: Auburn’s Sammie Coates

Despite a college career with very limited production, Sammie Coates is projected as a first round NFL Draft pick by many experts.

The 2015 NFL Draft will feature a relatively deep class at the wide receiver position. Without a doubt, Alabama’s Amari Cooper is the gem of the bunch. That said, another wide receiver who played his college ball in the state of Alabama — Auburn’s Sammie Coates — keeps popping up in the first round of mock drafts of several outlets.

I’m not sure I understand why.

More from NFL Draft

• Green Bay may never get to host a Super Bowl, but was just awarded next-best thing
• Green Bay selected as 2025 NFL Draft location: Best memes and tweets from NFL Twitter
• Nakobe Dean perfectly explains Howie Roseman’s draft affinity for Georgia
• Andy Reid confirms the Chiefs pivoting plans after the draft
• College Football: Replacements for every first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft

Sammie Coates played in an Auburn offense built around the run. If and when they threw the ball, they were usually looking for the big play. It’s not really a complicated scheme full of elaborate of routes and reads.

If anything, what Auburn does on offense is very similar to what the Seattle Seahawks do. There is quite a bit of reliance on the decision making and running ability of the quarterback and tough running between the tackles by the running backs.

This offensive scheme was part of what led to a college career of fairly pedestrian numbers for Sammie Coates. In 2014, he eclipsed the 100-yard mark three times. He failed to reach 30 yards in six games and scored in only three games.

His rise up the draft boards is attributed to his athleticism and little else. Scouts gush over his speed and his muscular frame that allows him to fight through corners who press him at the line of scrimmage. That’s pretty much all he brings to the table.

Coates is primarily a deep-threat, often just sprinting down the field hoping to get open for a big play or just draw a defender or two out of the way for underneath routes or to open the run game a little more. He struggles in intermediate route running and doesn’t show any signs of being able to run effective timing routes — something many NFL offenses are built on.

Quite simply, Sammie Coates is a one trick pony.

None of this takes into account Coates’ struggles catching anything but deep balls over the shoulder, something scouts noticed earlier in the year yet seems to be forgotten by draft analysts.

It’s almost as if the NFL Draft gurus want Sammie Coates to be the next Sammie Watkins. The problem is, he’s not even close. Watkins has great hands and runs crisp routes. The two are only similar in first name and speed.

The question marks in Sammie Coates’ game far outweigh the positive attributes in every way. Nevertheless, some sites have him being drafted at the end of the first round by either the Seahawks or the Patriots.

That is hilarious for a number of reasons.

For one, Seattle has shown that they are fully capable of reaching the Super Bowl without a big-time playmaker at the wide receiver position. They have a receiving corps full of what many would call role players. Coates is a role player himself and would bring very little to Seattle’s offensive attack. To infer that the Seahawks would waste a first round pick on him is an insult to the entire franchise.

As for him going to New England that early — the thought is laughable. When you take a guy in the first or even second round, he is projected as a starter. Who would Coates start over in New England’s current lineup? Julian Edelman? Danny Amendola? Brandon LaFell? Not a chance. Those are all different type of athletes who fit the system that the Patriots run.

There is a place for Sammie Coates in the National Football League, but it most certainly is not as a No. 1 receiver for a franchise that wants to contend for Super Bowl championships. Coates is best suited in a specialty role as the deep threat on a pass-first team that runs a lot of four and five-wide sets. The Saints and Colts come to mind in that regard.

Because of his potential and likely use as a role player, the notion that Sammie Coates is a first or even early second-round pick doesn’t make any sense –yet that’s where he is projected to go. For that reason, I have him on bust watch.

Next: NFL Draft Bust Watch: Michigan's Devin Funchess

More from FanSided

• Joe Burrow owes Justin Herbert a thank you note after new contract
• Chiefs gamble at wide receiver could already be biting them back
• Braves-Red Sox start time: Braves rain delay in Boston on July 25
• Yankees: Aaron Boone gives optimistic return date for Aaron Judge
• MLB Rumors: Yankees-Phillies trade showdown, Mariners swoop, India goes to Seattle