Two weeks ago I bashed Pro Football Focus, which is a great website for Pro Football Fanatics (I subscribe to it, by the way) because they were bashing Joe Haden, which I thought was ridculous. Two weeks ago, Joe was rated as the number 72 cornerback in the NFL, which means he was a mid-level number 3 cb; i.e., good enough to be a backup but not good enough to start in the NFL I had pointed out in my blog that this made no sense, based on the fact that no one was making any catches against him.
For example, yesterday he held A. J. Green, who you will have to admit is a productive NFL receiver, to 41 yards on 3 catches out of six attempts. Joe also had an interception. Of course Joe wasn't on Green all the time, but the point is that no wide receiver is catching the ball against the Steelers this year, so if he is really a F level player, why can't NFL offenses exploit him? The Steelers are only giving up 147 yards per game through the air, and Joe is involved in 98% of the defensive snaps. No one has caught very many balls off him the whole season. 61 receiving yards is the season single-game high for an opposing wide receiver versus the Steelers. It's obvious that the Steelers secondary is doing a great job. Last year they were atrocious.
So today, PFF no longer ranks Joe as an F. He is now the 36th best corner in the NFL. Apparently he improved really, really fast?
No, the problem is that the guys who work for Pro Football Focus probably don't watch the Browns' games, and truth to tell I don't blame them. But because they ignore Cleveland, they didn't realize that Joe had two successful surgeries to repair torn groin muscles, and he is way better now than he was last year. I don't know that he's an All-Pro again, but he's pretty good. Good luck to you Joe, you were a great Brown.
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