Former coaches call KC Concepcion a 'thermostat guy' with 'It factor' who will make impact on Browns

KC Concepcion guaranteed he'd fix the problem that plagued him in college: too many drops.The day after the Browns drafted the playmaking receiver out of Texas A&M, he sat behind a microphone in Berea and said he's been "working nonstop at it every day."That work has been going on for a while.Zone Coverage PodcastHolmon Wiggins, the Aggies' offensive coordinator and Concepcion's receivers coach, said after some early season drops in 2025, they changed the routine and heightened the focus."From just midseason on, he started practicing with no gloves, being intentional about him catching the ball, getting on the Jugs and kind of doing the extra and putting in the effort to make those things happen," Wiggins told The Chronicle-Telegram. "It's fixable and he's already taken the steps and the strides to continue to work on that."But when you look at them, some were some tough catches, but when you want to be Receiver 1, that's the standard and that's the expectation. You get two hands on it, you should end up making a catch. And then there were some that were just focus catches. As you sit there and all of a sudden you relax and you let your guard down and stuff kind of sneaks up on you. And that's this game of football."Concepcion, the No. 24 pick who will be back in Berea this weekend for rookie minicamp, had 61 catches for 919 yards (15.1 average), nine touchdowns and seven drops last season."It's more so concentration. Just focusing on the ball," he said. "It's going to get fixed for sure.""This is going to surpass what everybody's wildest dreams are": Browns break ground on new Brook Park domeWiggins doesn't doubt Concepcion (5-foot-11½, 191 pounds). He's been around him too much."The trick is not doing it till you get it right, it's doing it until you can't get it wrong. And I think he's a guy that's trying to take the necessary steps to make sure that he can do it till he can't get it wrong," Wiggins said.Concepcion grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attended the renamed Julius L. Chambers High School. Brandon Wiggins — no relation to Holmon — was the coach for his senior season. Concepcion played receiver, some wildcat quarterback and defensive back when necessary."He was the 'It factor' guy on the team," Brandon Wiggins said. "It's unbelievable. Looking back and reflecting, you saw it in him. He's always had dawg in him and that's something you can't teach or coach."To look at him now, this is his dream. I'm truly excited. He was a joy to coach. I'm really excited to see what he's going to do in the NFL."NFL Draft: Receiver KC Concepcion says Browns getting 'a dawg all over the field' and he's 'ready to change the organization'Concepcion spent two years at North Carolina State, starting 24 games and catching 124 passes for 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns with 12 drops. Holmon Wiggins knew what he was getting in the player when Concepcion transferred to College Station. He was blown away by the person."When you get a chance to get him on campus, you start to see who he is as a person," Holmon Wiggins said. "A guy that was unselfish, did right by his teammates."I call them thermostat guys. He changed the temperature in rooms when he walked in and people gravitated to him. Really great practice habits. He was a guy that we felt like had the leadership qualities and stepped in the minute he ended up coming into that room and transformed not only the offense, but our program."He called Concepcion "intrinsically motivated as a worker.""When you talk about any place, any business, organization, team, or whatever, you want to make sure that you have people that are going to come in and make it better than where it was," Holmon Wiggins said. "And he's one of those guys."The Browns saw the same thing. General manager Andrew Berry was blown away by their interactions and Concepcion's letter to league GMs describing his difficult childhood that included a stutter which made him dread going to school and being subject to ridicule."I really love the person, and he's obviously a dynamic football player," Berry said during the draft.Concepcion, who had two punt returns for touchdowns in 2025, is exceptional after the catch. Holmon Wiggins' favorite example was a bubble screen off an audible that went for a 48-yard touchdown against Missouri. He cut inside, found a seam, pulled away from a defender grabbing his shirt and streaked into the end zone.Wiggins listed a variety of things Concepcion does well."You talk about really, really good toughness," he said. "He can sit there, make the catch in traffic, sit there and cross the middle of the field, run shallows, digs, all of that kind of stuff."He has unbelievable change of direction, really good play strength. The ability to separate. His football IQ is second to none. You talk about a guy that can see what's going on on the field and knows how to react, and just his instincts continue to take over. And when he touches the ball, he's lightning, he's a play waiting to happen. So there's not enough things that I can say about him, but he has a game that transcends most levels."And works in the slot or lined up on the outside."So for us, it wasn't about trying to just pigeonhole him at a true position," Wiggins said. "We felt like he was such a great player that we just wanted to put him in between the white lines. So get him on the field, figure out just a bunch of different ways to get him the ball and let him go play."I think it'll translate (to the NFL) because he has really good football intelligence. He mastered the playbook. There were times we'd go in a week and he didn't even rep a certain spot. And then we just flip him at the drop of a hat based off of something that may happen or the fact that we felt like the ball needed to be in his hands and he could sit there and jump to a different position, figure it out and not miss a beat."Wiggins didn't know the Browns were going to draft Concepcion but likes the fit, especially after big-bodied receiver Denzel Boston was drafted in the second round."I just was hoping that he ended up getting to a pretty good landing spot," Wiggins said. "And they're all great organizations, but I think with Coach (Todd) Monken and what he'll bring to the table and the new energy there with the Cleveland Browns, I feel like he's ended up landing at a really good place."The post Former coaches call KC Concepcion a 'thermostat guy' with 'It factor' who will make impact on Browns first appeared on BrownsZone with Scott Petrak.