In training camp, the club had released receivers Kenny Britt, Jordan Matthews, Malcolm Mitchell and Eric Decker, as a series of moves haven’t panned out for the team at the position.
Coleman entered the NFL as a 2016 first-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns, but never reached the expectations that come with being selected with the No. 15 pick. He was traded to the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 6 for a 2020 seventh-round pick, but didn’t make the 53-man roster after struggling to grasp parts of the playbook.
Bills first-year offensive coordinator Brian Daboll is a former Patriots assistant who is running a similar offense to New England’s under Josh McDaniels.
Coleman’s departure from Cleveland was foreshadowed on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” when he was shown going into head coach Hue Jackson’s office asking why he was running with the second unit. He then told Jackson that if the team didn’t want him to play, they should trade him.
The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Coleman totaled 56 receptions for 718 yards with five touchdowns in his two seasons with the Browns.
The NFL Network was first to report New England’s plans to sign Coleman on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Fowler spent the first four years of his NFL career with the Denver Broncos, rising up from an undrafted free agent on the practice squad in 2014 to a complementary cog in the team’s receiving corps from 2015 to 2017.
He totaled 56 receptions for 698 yards and five touchdowns from 2015 to 2017, but was plagued by a few dropped passes that might have contributed to the Broncos’ decision to part ways with him in 2018.
Fowler signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Bears in April, but didn’t make the team’s 53-man roster coming out of the preseason.
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