Can Browner adjust?

As I understand it, Browner always only played on one side of the field in Seattle. Regardless of who was lining up against him, he was on the same side and Sherman was on the other.

Revis works a little differently - he will move around to shade the best receiver on the opposing team. This will force browner to move around to as Revis moves.

Is there any chance this could present a problem for a player who has always played the same side of the field? Any chance moving around to different spots will affect his play?

Interception said:

As I understand it, browner always only played on one side of the field in Seattle. Regardless of who was lining up against him, he was on the same side and Sherman was on the other.
Revis works a little differently - he will move around to shade the best receiver on the opposing team. This will force browner to move around to as revis moves.
Is there any chance this could present a problem for a player who has always played the same side of the field? Any chance moving around to different spots will affect his play?

Click to expand...

I don't see why it would. Browner job is going to basically jam the hell out of the receiver, and keep the play in front of him.

Interception said:

As I understand it, browner always only played on one side of the field in Seattle. Regardless of who was lining up against him, he was on the same side and Sherman was on the other.
Revis works a little differently - he will move around to shade the best receiver on the opposing team. This will force browner to move around to as revis moves.
Is there any chance this could present a problem for a player who has always played the same side of the field? Any chance moving around to different spots will affect his play?

Click to expand...

Didn't Asante do the same thing? Not like he had someone like Sherman on the other side. And was this as much Sherman's choice as Browners? Curious.

I don't see why not. As a matter of fact, I think he might be more comfortable with it. Belichick and Patricia will put him on guys that his skill set matches up well with. In Seattle, he was tasked with also covering smaller, shiftier receivers if they lined up on his side of the field. That's a terrible match-up for Browner. That shouldn't be an issue in New England.

IDK, I would think this style might be easier for the #2 CB. When you play one side of the field and never move, you can end up facing the opposing team's best receiver a lot especially if the other team wants to move their best receiver to avoid being covered by an elite CB.

With Revis shadowing the best receiver around the field, Browner is now almost always guaranteed to be facing the second, third, or even fourth best receiver on the field.

So by that logic, browner should be much better here than he was in Seattle.

And a side note, when playing the Seahawks... Why do teams not lineup their worst receiver against Sherman and pick on everyone else? I'm sure teams have #1 WRs that can handle Seattle 2nd and 3rd CBs.

Interception said:

And a side note, when playing the Seahawks... Why do teams not lineup their worst receiver against Sherman and pick on everyone else? I'm sure teams have #1 WRs that can handle Seattle 2nd and 3rd CBs.

Click to expand...

Their CB's... yeah. But then you have to contend with their safeties too. There's a reason that team won the Super Bowl while, at the same time, completely ****ting on the best offense of all time. They're stacked across the board. And even if the receivers did get separation vs. Seattle's CB2 and CB3, they had a rogue gallery of pass rushers that seemingly came off an assembly line on the sidelines ready to smack the quarterback.

KontradictioN said:

Their CB's... yeah. But then you have to contend with their safeties too. There's a reason that team won the Super Bowl while, at the same time, completely ****ting on the best offense of all time. They're stacked across the board. And even if the receivers did get separation vs. Seattle's CB2 and CB3, they had a rogue gallery of pass rushers that seemingly came off an assembly line on the sidelines ready to smack the quarterback.

Click to expand...

I'm not as enamored with the Seahawk's front seven as many, but their secondary was the best in the league by a wide margin. They had the best CB and best safety in the league last year.

KontradictioN said:

Their CB's... yeah. But then you have to contend with their safeties too. There's a reason that team won the Super Bowl while, at the same time, completely ****ting on the best offense of all time. They're stacked across the board. And even if the receivers did get separation vs. Seattle's CB2 and CB3, they had a rogue gallery of pass rushers that seemingly came off an assembly line on the sidelines ready to smack the quarterback.

Click to expand...

They also play mostly cover 3 so it doesn't really matter who you're lined up against. You're getting bracket covered.

FWIW, PFF's Sam Monson (of "Tom Brady is not a top 5 QB" fame) has this piece discussing the relative trade-offs of tracking WRs versus playing individual sides and rolling your safety coverage:

The Art of Tracking and the NFL’s Best Cornerbacks | ProFootballFocus.com

What evidence do we have to assume that Revis will be shadowing the opponents #1 WR each game?

The Art of Tracking and the NFL’s Best Cornerbacks | ProFootballFocus.com


This article compares the case of Richard Sherman to that of Talib. There are some good snapshots of how Seattle used Sherman to cover the left half the field on an island while moving Earl Thomas over to the right to cover the deep half of the field while Browner/Thurmond/Maxwell play man. This strategy was clearly successful, and may be part of the reason why Browner ascended to Pro Bowl status while in Seattle.

The numbers included show that Revis struggled when covering the left side of the field. This could be a situational anomaly, or could be a lingering after effect of his ACL tear.

Traditionally, the Patriots have stuck to a LCB and RCB. If Revis is stronger covering the right, and can remain an island on one half the field, why not place him where he is most effective and bump Devin McCourty to the left to support Browner/Dennard/whoever.

After reading that, I'm thinking we should put revis on the number 2 receiver...

Have Browner jam the number 1 and double team him with a safety (Logan Ryan) over the top.

That leaves one safety, preferably McCourty, to roam and either Dennard or Arrington in the slot.

Thoughts?

Interception said:

After reading that, I'm thinking we should put revis on the number 2 receiver...

Have Browner jam the number 1 and double team him with a safety (Logan Ryan) over the top.

That leaves one safety, preferably McCourty, to roam and either Dennard or Arrington in the slot.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I expect that BB will continue to game plan on game-by-game basis. There will probably be some cases in which Revis shadows the #1 (as Talib did last year), others in which he shadows the #2 and the Pats roll the coverage, and still others in which they just let the CBs play a side and then roll the safety coverage.

For example, against the Bears (October 26) with 6'4" Brandon Marshall and 6'3" Alshon Jeffery (not to mention 6'6" Martellus Bennett and possibly 6'3" Marquess Wilson) it may not make sense to shadow either receiver. Against Detroit (November 23) I think it would make sense to have Revis shadow Calvin Johnson and match Browner up against TE Eric Ebron; it would be a waste to have Revis shadow Golden Tate.

I think that Browner will either be a star or will struggle depending on how he is used. BB is usually pretty adept at exploiting player's strengths and covering up their weaknesses, at least when injuries don't force his hand.

stinkypete said:

The numbers included show that Revis struggled when covering the left side of the field. This could be a situational anomaly, or could be a lingering after effect of his ACL tear.

Click to expand...

Most of that was the result of putting one of the best press-man-to-man corners ever into a zone scheme.

I think two of my favorite analogies I saw last year about it was, "It's like asking David Ortiz to lay down a bunt every other at-bat" and "It's like buying a Ferrari and using it only as your train station commuter car"

Similar thing happened to Asomugha he played man-to-man went to Philly was told to play zone and it just completely killed his career.

Except Revis is worlds better than Asomugha on Asomugha's best day and that's why Revis still had a pretty decent year not playing to his strength and Asomugha flamed out of football. Guy didn't even stick with the 49ers that's how bad him being played out of scheme messed him up.

Same reason why Talib wasn't remotely considered one of the better corners in the league when he played in TB. He comes to NE and then people have him as one of the best CB in the league.

What was the difference? Talib played zone in TB and man-to-man in NE.

One of the top reasons why Belichick didn't pay Samuel was because he was a zone CB. It's the same reason why McCourty moved to FS, good zone CB, average-to-subpar man CB.

Interception said:

As I understand it, browner always only played on one side of the field in Seattle. Regardless of who was lining up against him, he was on the same side and Sherman was on the other.
Revis works a little differently - he will move around to shade the best receiver on the opposing team. This will force browner to move around to as revis moves.
Is there any chance this could present a problem for a player who has always played the same side of the field? Any chance moving around to different spots will affect his play?

Click to expand...

Is there a chance? Sure. My guess is, though, that the Patriots will let Revis play on his island while rolling coverage over to Browner's side. That will allow Browner to lock receivers down from the snap, with someone back to help if he gets beat at the line. The Patriots (at least theoretically) having multiple LBs with coverage ability makes that a much more likely approach, IMO, since the safeties shouldn't need to be quite as worried about the underneath.

Revis clearly wasn't 100% last year, and he needed to be protected some. That doesn't seem to be the case this year, judging from the early reports.

OTA reports have mentioned that Browner is excelling and is the de facto starter opposite Revis. He intercepted Brady today, I believe.

PP2 said:

OTA reports have mentioned that Browner is excelling and is the de facto starter opposite Revis. He intercepted Brady today, I believe.

Click to expand...

Any word who he was covering? I'm going to assume it wasn't Amendola or Edelman.

We have so much depth at CB...he won't need to cover the smaller guys...he will be able to jam who he jams best. He shouldn't have to cover those shift guys here

KontradictioN said:

Any word who he was covering? I'm going to assume it wasn't Amendola or Edelman.

Click to expand...

In OTA, MC, and TC, pretty much all the receivers.