Michael Coats Jr. has taken the long road to this point, and now the Browns might be looking at one of the summer’s most intriguing defensive finds.
He’s only 25, but his path to the NFL has been anything but ordinary. The journey started in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he walked away from football after youth sports and then stepped away from hoops, too, choosing to live like a normal high school kid. After graduation, he wasn’t sure what came next, so he went to work at an arcade - Big Play Entertainment Center in Biloxi.
That’s where the next chapter began. According to Nevada Sports Net, Coats Jr. found a virtual flyer advertising football tryouts at East Central Community College in Decatur, Mississippi, and quietly set his plan in motion.
He had already been working out on his own, determined to get back on the field. He told his mom he was going to see a college basketball game at another school, but the tryout turned into the start of something much bigger.
He made the team and started for the Warriors in their first game of the 2020 season. Coats Jr. spent three seasons in Decatur, with a brief stop at Louisiana Tech in 2022 that ended after a coaching change knocked the opportunity off track. From there, he landed on the radar of Nevada’s coaching staff.
His 2023 season with the Wolf Pack was more of a holding pattern, as he worked in reserve duty and finished with 13 tackles, four passes defensed, and one interception. Then came the breakout.
In 2024, Coats Jr. became a full-time contributor and turned heads with 41 tackles, 13 passes defensed, and four interceptions. Pro Football Focus said he allowed a 45.8 passer rating in his coverage area that year.
West Virginia came calling after that, and Coats Jr. jumped at the chance to play in the Big 12. The step up in competition made 2025 a tougher grind, but he still put together a solid season with 30 tackles, two tackles for loss, seven passes defensed, and a fumble recovery, along with a 73.2 PFF grade.
He went undrafted, but Cleveland wasted no time making a push for him. The Browns signed him with a $15,000 signing bonus and $115,000 guaranteed, and he wasted little time flashing the trait that got him noticed in the first place. During training camp, he picked off Deshaun Watson in one of the opening sessions.
Then came the preseason opener against the Chicago Bears, and Coats Jr. made another statement. He intercepted Tyson Bagent, added a pass defensed, and turned in a 90.0 PFF grade on 18 snaps, which ranked second among the 33 Browns defenders who played on Saturday. League-wide, that grade checked in sixth among 226 cornerbacks.
He was targeted five times and gave up just two catches for 13 yards. Between the interception and the breakup, he finished with an 8.3 passer rating allowed.
It’s still the preseason, and it’s still only one game. But Coats Jr. is forcing people to pay attention. If he keeps stacking days like that, Cleveland may not have much of a choice about where he ends up.
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