Cleveland Browns: Cornerback a Major Question Mark
By Peter Smith
The Cleveland Browns are questionable at the cornerback position and even what they have is extremely fragile in terms of their depth.
Jameis Winston and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers passing attack picked apart the Cleveland Browns to the tune of 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a half. Winston deserves a ton of credit for his play, particularly how well he maneuvered in the pocket, but the Browns showed little resistance in what was supposed to be their dress rehearsal for the regular season.
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Tramon Williams missed the game with a toe injury, which only serves to highlight the problem. The Browns had Joe Haden, Jamar Taylor and Justin Gilbert as their three top corners for the contest and Gilbert ultimately left the game with a concussion.
Obviously, Haden has a ton of expectations as he comes back from an injury plagued 2015 season, in which he only recently was finally cleared to fully participate. He also has a lot to prove since he should be the best player on a defense that needs all the help it can get.
Haden’s play was largely inconsequential since Winston and the Bucs basically didn’t target him all game. With Taylor and Gilbert, they just moved their receivers around to get in favorable matchups to exploit them as often as possible.
Mike Evans was only targeted five times and it produced five catches for 115 yards and a touchdown, including a 47 yard reception. Some might argue that the Browns may have played vanilla coverage and didn’t work to take Evans away, but the coverage they did play offered zero resistance. And it was only two quarters.
The Browns experienced more success defending Vincent Jackson. Jackson caught four passes on nine targets, but still had 78 yards and a 31 yard play. In all, the Bucs had five explosive passing plays (plays over 20 yards) for 158 yards and a touchdown in one half.
It cannot be understated how much the Browns impotent pass rush is contributing to the problem. The Browns have major question marks at corner, but the inability to affect the quarterback only serves to highlight the issue, allowing them to sit back and pick them apart.
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Certainly, the fact the Browns didn’t secure a sack the entire game looks bad, but they were unable to put any real stress on Winston. For his part, Winston was terrific maneuvering in the pocket and short circuited some pressure efforts before it could materialize, but he had a ton of time to throw.
Tramon Williams is average. He’s survivable as an outside corner, but he’s 33 years old and his best football is behind him. This is the last year of his contract and it’s a virtual certainty he will retire once the season has concluded.
Justin Gilbert looks great running around, but he’s incredibly inconsistent in his technique in coverage and can’t tackle to save his life. It stands to reason that neither will play in the preseason finale against the Chicago Bears, hoping to be ready for the start of the regular season.
As bad as Gilbert is, which has been downright horrific at times, he might be safe to stick on the roster simply because they have nothing behind him that looks promising.
The most interesting corner they had entering camp was Pierre Desir, the third year corner from Lindenwood. The problem there is this Browns’ regime has been amateurish in handling of Desir. They moved him to free safety in practice and then would throw him into preseason games at corner. And he was still better than many of the guys only focusing on corner.
Short of jumping Rahim Moore on the depth chart, Desir is a long shot to make the roster as a safety, but had he been utilized as a corner the entire time, he may well be a starter or at worst, a credible backup. Maybe the Browns will move him back to fulltime corner given the depth chart there, but as it stands, Desir has to be hoping to get released or traded to a team that has a plan for him.
Desir is one of several players being played out of position due to issues with depth and bad judgment. Hue Jackson, being an offensive coach, it’s not a huge surprise that the team focused on offense in the draft, but injuries to critical spots and bad planning have left them in awful shape defensively with little time before the regular season begins.
This gets to Jamar Taylor, who has been publicly given a shot to take the starting corner spot opposite Haden. The former Miami Dolphins second round pick was acquired for a bag of footballs on day three of the draft. Since joining the Browns, Taylor been utilized as a slot and outside corner in his time with the Browns.
Taylor looks reasonably effective in the slot, replacing K’Waun Williams. Williams has been excellent in the slot when healthy, but is currently in a medical dispute with the Browns, resulting in a suspension. The two sides are unlikely to come to a resolution and Williams is likely done with the Browns.
On the outside, Taylor is a huge question mark. Worse, with Williams and Taylor not playing that spot, the job falls to Charles Gaines or rookie fifth round pick, Trey Caldwell.
Taylor has made his share of plays on the ball and is extremely competitive, but everyone is going after him as often as possible. He tends to give up inside leverage too often and with his size, he gets bodied out of too many plays.
Of the undrafted rookies, Tracy Howard might have the best shot to make the roster. Howard had a good debut against the Green Bay Packers, making a couple plays on special teams, but since has been less effective. He may have some upside going forward, but the Browns don’t want to have to be in a position where they need Howard to play in a regular season game.
The Buccaneers game certainly is the most glaring example of poor corner play, but this has been an issue all preseason. There just isn’t much that inspires confidence with this group.
Looking to the regular season, the Browns have to play the Pittsburgh Steelers twice, the New York Giants, and Washington Redskins among others.
Somehow, they have to find a way to cover Antonio Brown and the Steelers weaponry with Ben Roethlisberger who has routinely picked the Browns apart. The Giants have Eli Manning throwing to Odell Beckham and Sterling Shepard while the Redskins have Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson. With what they’ve shown so far and particularly against the Bucs, these look like horrible matchups for this Browns secondary.
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Not only do the Browns look undermanned at the corner position right now, there is little if any reason for it to get better as the season progresses. More likely, the situation actually deteriorates further and unless the pass rush improves dramatically, the Browns could give up some historic passing days. If Joe Haden can return to a Pro Bowl level of play and one of the other corners can step up, that would be pretty good considering how limited they look right now. Corner is going to be a priority in the upcoming offseason.