Browns: 5 best defensive players of the regular season

4. Ronnie Harrison

I don’t think Ronnie Harrison outplayed Sendejo. I think he’s more talented, yes, but in terms of production, Sendejo was clearly the more efficient player. More durable to boot as well. Yet, Harrison gets the nod over Sendejo because Harrison stabilized the back end of the secondary when guys like Sheldrick Redwine and Karl Joseph failed to do so. Harrison brought in a sense of hope and consistency, and his arrival helped Sendejo improve too.

I’ve said all season that the safeties aren’t the issue many seem to think. It’s the corners and linebackers. That’s where the Browns got beat often, across the middle and in one-on-one coverage. That’s not to say that opposing offenses didn’t go over the top on these guys from time to time, because they did, but they didn’t really give up that many deep plays. At least not compared to how often they gave up big plays underneath.

If Harrison and Sendejo had better corners ahead of them to compliment Denzel Ward, then the Browns secondary would’ve been much better. It kind of makes you wonder why the Browns didn’t go and re-sign Damarious Randall and move him back to corner.

The hope is that the Browns through free agency or the draft address their corner issues because it’s clear the corners they have aren’t good enough.