Brandon Browner Overrated?

Its been an extremely unpopular opinion, but I just haven’t been able to buy into the idea that Brandon Browner is an elite CB. He’s good, but exactly how good is a matter of opinion, and my opinion is that he’s not as good as most Seahawks fans seem to think.

Perhaps it is the the fact that he had more penalties than anyone else in the NFL (19), or the fact that he gave up more yard than all but 6 CBs in the entire NFL, or perhaps that when you combine those 2 stats there were 5 players in the league who gave up more yards than Browner. But if you ask me, that doesn’t sound like an elite corner.

On the other hand, Browner may have been bad for the first 6 weeks, but he was much better over the last 10. He harassed WRs at the line better than anyone else in the league. Opposing players were clearly frustrated by his size and style, and they hated playing against him. There’s a reason why he was picked for the pro-bowl.

But does that make him elite? ESPN’s KC Joyner lists him as one of the league’s 7 most overrated players. He cites the information above, and that the 6 interceptions were mostly on balls that were tipped by other players and not plays just made my Browner.

In all honestly, I’m creating a false debate on a slow news day simply because I’m bored, and because I knew that Joyner’s inclusion of Browner would get some people all riled up. Isn’t this fun?

When in comes to Browner, he’s an incredibly Jekyll and Hyde player. He can be downright dominant, like he was for most of the season. He can also be very bad, like he was in week 2 against the Steelers when he played what might be (no exaggeration) the worst game I’ve ever seen played by a CB. Going forward I think it’s pretty clear that he improved tremendously, and that we wont be seeing any more of really bad Browner anymore.

But the same Jekyll and Hyde phenomenon showed up a bit even in his best games. While he was really good for most of the game, he’d also make a few frustrating mistakes at some point in every single game. There wasn’t a single game when he didn’t get beat deep at least once. Those plays, and the boneheaded penalties, really drive me nuts as an analytical fan. He would be so good for most of the game, but then so frustrating;y bad for 4-5 plays, just enough to really hurt the team.

I really do expect him to be better this season. He’s was already very good last season, he just needs to fix those 4-5 bad plays/game and he’ll be one of the game’s best. The Seahawks improved pass rush should help, as WRs wont be able to get deep very often. The only real problem should be the penalties, and unfortunately I don’t expect improvement in that regard. As John Schneider said, he was always among the league leaders in penalties in Canada; it’s just part of his game.