Shon Coleman has seen his repetitions at right tackle with the first team increase over the past week just like everyone else who's watched Browns practice.
The second-year offensive lineman just isn't ready to let up in the ongoing competition.
Listed as first on Cleveland's unofficial depth chart, Coleman started last week's preseason opener and has taken most of the repetitions at right tackle in recent practices. Previously, he'd rotated with Cameron Erving at left tackle on days veteran Joe Thomas doesn't practice. Erving played left tackle with the first-team offense against the Saints, too.
"I don't look at it like that at all," Coleman said Monday. "I just go out there, do my thing and just try to get the team better. I leave that up to the coaches and everything, how they want to do the depth charts. I am just focused on what I can do to get the team better."
"I just have to keep going out there and doing my thing, working on the technique, getting better, being more consistent and just trying to make the team better."
Coleman got his first in-game action at right tackle Thursday since last year's season finale, when he spelled an injured Erving and held his own, especially in the run game. He's continued to be a force as a run blocker in what is truly his first full NFL season after missing most of the offseason last year because of a surgical procedure. During OTAs, he admitted he was still more comfortable at left tackle, the position he'd played his entire life, than he was on the right side but said Monday he was now comfortable at both spots.
With perennial Pro Bowler Joe Thomas on the left side for the foreseeable future, Coleman knows the Browns need him most on the right side and carries ascending confidence at the position that's going to get him on the field fastest.
"Whether it is playing left tackle or right tackle, you just have to go out there and work your technique and everything," Coleman said. "It is good work for me to be able to go on both sides and be able to keep refreshing everything as far as assignments and things like that."
Coleman has worked closely with Thomas ever since the Browns made him a third-round pick in the 2016 draft. That tutelage has been important for Coleman, whose pass blocking experience was minimal at Auburn, which boasted one of the nation's top running attacks during the years when Coleman was a starter.
Coleman has seen a shift in play-calling -- as promised by Hue Jackson -- throughout training camp that will allow him to do what he does best on a regular basis.
"In the SEC, all we did was run the football so you kind of derive from that," Coleman said. "That is the big thing that Coach Jackson is trying to put in the game is running the ball, and I feel like I can go out there and help him do that."
The youngest player on a veteran line, Coleman said he wouldn't feel any additional pressure if he wins the job. As long as he plays at his best, everything will fall into place, he said.
His teammates agree.
"I think he's playing well," center JC Tretter said. "Physically, you see a lot of plays where he's so powerful. When he can harness that, you get a guy moving and open holes in the run game. The more reps he gets, the more experience he gets -- that's really what it is as you get older -- the more things you see and diagnose early, make your job so much easier post-snap."
