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January 13, 2015
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January 13, 2015Over the next many weeks, I will be reviewing and discussing the performance of the 2014 Cleveland Browns position by position. It was a tough season for the Cleveland Browns, falling in five straight games to end the season at 7-9. The team showed some glimpses of promise and some other areas of concern. So lets get to it!
In the 2014 season, the Cleveland Browns’ cornerback group really developed into one of the stronger positions on the team. The team’s overall pass defense was much improved over previous seasons, ranking eighth in fewest passing yards allowed in the NFL (3,592 total passing yards and 225 yards passing/game). The Browns were able to hold opposing quarterbacks this season to a combined 74.1 quarterback rating and 57.1% completion percentage, both rank as the lowest in the NFL. The secondary has number one corner in Joe Haden and three solid young corners who can develop into the league’s best secondary. That’s not even counting Justin Gilbert, the Browns number one pick last year.
So let’s go through the players who made up the 2014 Cleveland Browns’ cornerback unit.
Joe Haden
Joe Haden is one of the best corners in the league and a true number one corner for the Browns. This past season, he had 71 solo tackles, 73 combined tackles, three interceptions, 20 passes defended, and one forced fumble. According to ProFootballFocus, among all NFL cornerbacks who played 75% of the snaps, Haden ranked sixth in lowest completion percentage for passes in his coverage area (53.1%) and eighth in lowest quarterback rating for passes into his coverage area (75.9). This is incredible because he was always assigned to cover the opposing teams best receiver every snap. Haden would have had a better season if he has not started off injured and struggled through the first few games of the season.
Haden is the defense’s best player and will be in the Browns’ secondary for years to come. He shuts down or slows down the opposing team’s best receiver and allows the rest of the defense to focus on the other members of the offense. His presence on the defense makes it a lot more difficult to throw against.
2014 Grade: A+
2015 Outlook: Starting Number One Corner; Huge Contributor
Buster Skrine
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Buster Skrine might be one of the most underrated players on the Browns. This season, he posted 62 solo tackles, 67 combined tackles, four interceptions, and 18 passes defended. According to ProFootballFocus, among all NFL cornerbacks who played 75% of the snaps, Skrine ranked ninth in lowest completion percentage for passes in his coverage area (56.9%) and 16th in lowest quarterback rating for passes into his coverage area (86.9). Skrine does struggle with penalties and making plays on the ball, but in most of the cases, he stays with his man and tracks his man very well. He just needs to improve on his ball skills when the ball is in the air and his consistency to play top notch coverage.
Skrine is an unrestricted free agent this offseason. I believe the Browns will make him one of the top priorities to re-sign. He has developed into a good complement to Joe Haden and can still improve to be even better.
2014 Grade: B+
2015 Outlook: Likely to Return; Major Contributor
K’Waun Williams
K’Waun Williams was a great find by general manager Ray Farmer, developing into one of the best additions of the offseason. In the time he got to play, he made plays for the Browns’ defense. He notched 29 solo tackles, 38 combined tackles, and eight passes defended in 13 games this season. In his limited action, he earned the highest coverage grade for all the Browns’ defenders (+11). He has very good athleticism and technique to stay with faster players in the slot. He was a great addition that made the defense even more difficult to throw against.
Williams will most likely come in as the starting slot corner. If the team re-signs Skrine, the group of Haden, Skrine, and Williams could develop into the best corner unit in the league. Williams is a young talented player who has a lot of potential.
2014 Grade: A
2015 Outlook: Starting Slot Corner; Good Contributor
Pierre Desir
Pierre Desir played in limited action, but showed a lot of promise in that time. In five games this season, he had 11 solo tackles and two passes defended. With the injuries late in the season, Desir got his first expanded game action and made the best of it in solid games versus Cincinnati and Carolina in weeks 15 and 16. He has great size and length for the position, but is still raw coming out of Lindenwood.
Desir will be a solid fourth corner for the Browns coming next season. He could develop into a larger role depending on his improvements this offseason. He is a young player who has all the talent in the world to be a good NFL cornerback.
2014 Grade: B-
2015 Outlook: Backup Corner; Solid Contributor
Justin Gilbert
Gilbert was one of the biggest letdowns of all the Browns’ defenders this season. The rookie first round pick played sparingly for the Browns because of his attitude and preparation. In 14 games this season, he posted 23 solo tackles, 29 combined tackles, one interception, eight passes defended, and one touchdown. Before the season, many expected him to eventually take over the starting job from Buster Skrine. But, Gilbert actually went backwards, ending up inactive for the last game of the season.
Gilbert will be an interesting player to track next preseason. He has all the talent to be a starting corner, but he must be able to do the preparation and the off-the-field things in order to achieve his potential. If he can do this, the Browns will have a bountiful of options at cornerback.
2014 Grade: D
2015 Outlook: Backup Corner; Solid Contributor who could develop into a bigger role
Other Cornerbacks on the roster with too little playing time: Robert Nelson and Kendall James
Overview and Outlook to 2015
The Browns pass defense was very good this season and the cornerback unit was a huge reason for the success. I graded every corner, except Justin Gilbert, equal to or higher than a B-. I was very high on the success of the secondary all season as you could have noticed in my weekly film rooms. The corner unit starts with Joe Haden, because he makes everyone else’s job easier because of his ability to cover the opposing offense’s best receiving weapon one-on-one. Buster Skrine developed into a very good complement for Haden, while Williams showed great promise to be the team’s slot corner.
The cornerback group as a whole is a young and talented one with every player under or of the age of 25. Buster Skrine is a free agent this offseason, so the team will need to decide whether or not they will re-sign him. I believe that the team will opt to re-sign him and go with the group they have. I don’t think the team needs to add anyone to this group. The Browns’ coaches just need to develop the young talent they have. It has the makings of being a top-flight group who could develop into the league’s best. To say I am excited about this group is an understatement!
All stats have come from ProFootballFocus.com, except for the combined tackle totals, passes defended totals, team stat totals and forced fumble totals, which came from ESPN.com
28 Comments
Here’s what I’d like to see some veteran leaders on the Browns do this year. When Gilbert and Manziel show up for OTAs, mini-camps, and training camp, treat them like rookies. Call them rookies. Tell them they wasted their first year here, so they are still rookies. Make them carry your pads and sing their alma mater, and then shave their heads and tape them to the goalposts.
Skrine was the most penalized defensive back in the NFL I’d rather have Williams start opposite Haden until Gilbert finally figures it out mentally and use Skrine as third down back. Unless they can upgrade through FA or draft and just let Skrine go.
Watching Desir go from completely clueless to serviceable was very encouraging. An obvious testament to hard work and effort.
I’m looking at you Mr. Gilbert. >:/
I am sure that rookie mini hazing will definitely motivate them in a way that it didn’t last year.
Can’t do any worse, can it?
The Browns were able to hold opposing quarterbacks this season to a combined 74.1 quarterback rating and 57.1% completion percentage, both rank as the lowest in the NFL.
Just re-noting this line because it is so key. Our pass defense was great last year. If we can find the OLB/DE to set the edge and help that rush defense, while getting even a little more pressure, then we can truly have an elite defense.
Coaches didn’t think Williams could handle outside CB. They said on many occasions that he was a slot CB only.
Don’t think Skrine was as good as some think nor as bad as others might think,he is decent,but not good, and has improved probably each year he has been on the team…so maybe he will get better still. I also think Gilbert on the field was not terrible,and he improved when he was on the field…..his off field problems,well I don’t really know…..If he can fix the issues off the field it seems like he can be good(definitely has a higher upside than Skrine), but will he? Desir seems iike a steal ..was him sitting so long that made him look that way? Just saying if we treated Gilbert the same would he have looked good with limeted reps? Seems by how Gilbert was used early he was supposed to push Skrine out,but the D seems to be complicated for Dbacks….or do we all forget Hadens early struggles? How much is it the D and how much is it Gilbert being young? If vets struggled for about 6 weeks how much harder is it for a rookie? Think about it from midseason on Gilbert when on the field tended to be good more often than not. I don’t think Pettine’s hard rules are bad,but they may be holding people back stupidly,when what the players need is time in games. Not saying practice habits should be ignored, nor should lack of discipline be ignored but some folks only show up when the lights are on in a game.
sitting and learning the D I think did wonders for Desir….maybe to much was put on Gilberts plate?
Haden’s early season woes were more due to an injury rather then not getting the system
I was a huge fan of Gilbert before the draft, so I was pretty invested in watching him. He was absolutely brutal when he first hit the field this year and fellow rookie Williams was noticeably better from the jump.
As the season progressed, Gilbert was used more sparingly and he looked really good most of the time (Indy game was his best as he shut down Moncrief except for biting on 1 double move and not getting his hips around that allowed Donte a big gain). The problem was that there were whispers he was only in limited sets because he wasn’t working hard to learn the defense and his spot on the inactive list along with Dansby’s quotes seemed to confirm the whispers.
I see the crazy upside with Gilbert, but he’s got to want it much like our other 1st round pick.
Don’t disagree…with the wanting it factor,but he improved quite a bit it seemed while sitting and watching. Thus part of my point, that sitting and learning he improved from his starting point. My question though is it possible that he could have improved more by playing more? Some players,even some great ones practice poorly but perform when the game is played( this is how Gorden works supposedly and I think how Winslow performed,that is poor in practice great in games as opposed to Braylon Edwards great in practice but shitty on the field most years on game days.
10 picks in this year’s draft! 😀
Too soon?
if you don’t know the plays, then you cannot be on the field or you’ll be in the wrong spot.
Getting toasted by NFL WRs did wonders for him.
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/49/49b2bba83d0c55c5b76a7767a601a26373b631af789585fb2e19f56cbd93aa1c.jpg
Disagree that Skrine is underrated, at least in Cleveland. I like him because he squeezes everything out of physical talent. But so did Jerry Dybzinski, and that didn’t make him a legit starting shortstop. Here’s the Skrine thing: if the PFF stats don’t take into account his weekly pass interference calls, almost all of which are intentional to prevent a score but result in huge gains (he resorts to defensive holding to prevent short passes) than those stats are giving a false positive.
There’s much to like about him. I’m partial to him. He’s valuable and they need him. But they immediately need to develop a bigger, stronger outside guy, whether Gilbert, Desir or yet another high draft choice (because decent corners with size guys are starting to go pretty high in the draft). Even perfect technique can’t help a 5’7″ corner cover a 6’1″ leaper. There’s a reason he interferes so much.
Okay,I agree….seems though to say in Pettines D you need to sit and learn before you play, right? Or does it mean being agressive and playing a hard style of bump and run is what you need to do(Williams fit’s this description).
we had 10 picks last year as well,but we did not make 10 choices.
He did improve overall.
PFF does take into account penalties. I agree with you that the team would like to develop either Gilbert or Desir to be the starting outside corner opposite Haden. I believe Skrine’s penalties stem from his confidence and as you said his height. He stays right on the hips of most of his opponents, but gets beat when the ball is in the air. He would definitely be even better as the third corner on the team with Gilbert or Desir starting.
He also plays very aggressively, which is either being taught by this position coach or he’s learned from Haden. Btw, these secondary coaches must be very good. Impressive how quickly they got good contributions as the season progressed from a tiny school guy like Desir and a rookie street FA like Williams. Makes Gilbert look all the more culpable for his rookie year washout.
I think the DBs just need to work hard on the practice fields and in their film study too.
Must admit didn’t think about the film study habits….which in the long run are probably more important than practice habits.
Great breakdown. Just to quibble slightly – Haden getting an A+ bothers me only because of his woeful start to the season. A- would be more apropos for doing so incredibly after those few games. After the bye, he was getting better, and after a couple more games he was sick. (His chart on PFF is pretty interesting.)
Skrine meanwhile has mostly good games and then has a couple games – both BAL games and against Evans and BUF, where he was absolutely killed, I think by bigger WRs.
And Gilbert was atrocious Weeks 1 and 3, and mostly decent after that, though granted his snaps were down. CB is the hardest position to learn in the NFL. I think he’ll be fine.
There’s a reason he interferes so much.
not to mention he has had the flag issue for 3 years now…I think he has just gotten so much better as a corner we can now sometimes debate him getting called so often. It used to be he was beat so bad he had to hold and interfere, now there are questions about him being called for so many penalties….maybe that’s now the rep he has with officials?
I wouldn’t consider Haden on an A level in any way with the first 4 games,but he did battle through an injury later, which should raise his score some,lol. He definitely did not truly deserve a pro bowl nod this year…he wasn’t that good.