:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/4948503/135321043.jpg)
Pro Football Focus is doing their season review, and yesterday they touched on the NFL's cornerbacks. As always, the statistics they look at are subjective. Browns cornerbacks Sheldon Brown and Joe Haden were ranked in the top ten when it came to opposing quarterbacks having low completion percentages when throwing at a particular cornerback.
5th Best: Sheldon Brown - targeted 76 times, 35 passes completed (46.1%)
9th Best: Joe Haden - targeted 85 times, 42 passes completed (49.4%)
Many people have argued that the reason the Browns' pass defense was "ranked" so high was because team's chose to run the ball at them so much. That is true to an extent, but I think you also need to look at things like this and realize that it's not like quarterbacks were torching these guys when they did throw. The top two players on the list were Darrelle Revis and the recently-toasted Ike Taylor.
PFF also listed a bunch of negative categories for cornerbacks. Funny enough, former Brown Eric Wright was near the top of those lists. Wright was thrown at 120 times this season, 2nd most in the NFL (with a 62.5% completion rate against him). Wright also ranked 6th in the league in most yardage given up by a cornerback.