Cleveland Browns’ Martin Emerson needs a step up in competition before earning “lockdown” status

People need to stop overhyping the Cleveland Browns’ Martin Emerson

This is going to get misconstrued, so let me be clear; I like Martin Emerson. He’s been a very good nickel corner for the Browns and a fine backup who can fill in for a hurt starter. What he is not, however, is a “lockdown corner”. Emerson is third or fourth on the depth chart depending on how you view Greedy Williams.

Emerson has been uneven all year, and there’s good reason for that. The Browns have faced some truly bad offenses. This isn’t just some random statement, either. The Browns have played just five teams who are both in the Top 16 in the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns. So of course Emerson excels against teams lacking talent.

They’ve only played three teams who are in the Top 10 in both passing yards and passing touchdowns. Would you like to know what PFF gives him a grade of against those three teams? A 60.9 (rounded up). That’s not a “lockdown” quality grade. So when people post data without context, it serves to do no one any good. Like the below tweet. The graph below highlights players who have a high number of forced incompletions against receiving yards allowed.

In the tweet, we see Emerson in the “lockdown” category. Something Browns Wire is quick to point out as a sign that he is in fact a “lockdown” cornerback. Yet, it’s important to note that analytics without context is like eating empty calories, it provides nothing of value. You need substance to these analytics.

So let’s provide some substance.

Martin Emerson excels against subpar talent

The thing about Emerson is that he lets a lot of people catch the ball. His best game in this regard came against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, giving up just two catches on 10 targets. The Bucs aren’t a great passing team despite their stats, as they’ve looked all out of sorts this year. So that’s not the huge feather in his cap that many would think. Against better teams, he can let upwards of 70% of completions through. So he’s not excelling as the graph would tell you, he’s just simply not being targeted that often.

Teams with higher-quality receivers target them, not the guy Emerson is usually covering. The Dolphins, Chargers, and Bengals (Week 14), only targeted Emerson four times or less. When Emerson starts, sure, he gets more targets, but he hasn’t started against any of the better offenses.

In fact, his best PFF coverage scores are against the worst passing teams of the year. Against Washington, he posted an 82.3 PFF grade. Very good, except the Washington Commanders are 20th in passing yards, and 17th in touchdowns, with arguably the league’s worst starting quarterback in Carson Wentz under center.

His other best games? A 76.1 against New England, who are a putrid passing offense (21st in passing yards, 23rd in passing TDs), a 73.0 against New York (15th, 27th), a 70.3 against Carolina (29th, 26th), and a 67.9 against New Orleans (16th, 16th)

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Emerson had a 77.3 against Cincinnati in their first match of the season, and a 78.4 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Except, there’s a major caveat there; The Bengals were without Ja’Marr Chase, and the Chargers were missing Keenan Allen.

When the Bengals rematched the Browns, Chase had a huge game and Emerson looked awful (53.7). The Bengals were also a different team in the first eight games, averaging just 21 points per game, and were 4-4. Since that loss to the Browns, the Bengals are 7-0 and posting 29 points per game. They’re a completely different team with Chase.

Clearly, Emerson benefited from a discombobulated Bengals squad.

In fact, he’s played terribly against the AFC North as a whole, besides one Chase-less game. Against a very bad Ravens squad (29th, 18th), posting a high of 58.6 and a low of 57.1. Against Pittsburgh in their first encounter (24th, 32nd), he posted just a 56.7.

Four of his six worst games are against the AFC North, the other two games are Miami (3rd and 4th), and Houston (25th, 21st), where he posted a 49.3 and a 56.1 respectively.

And how much he plays, be it as a starter or a nickel guy, doesn’t seem to factor much into his performance, as it does the quality of the opponents.

The games he played the most in (84% of snaps or more), were the Buccaneers, the first Ravens game, both Bengals games, The Bills, and the Patriots. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to realize that his best games were against the worst-performing teams, the Bengals (first 8 games), and the Patriots. He played fine against the Buccaneers but no one who actually watches football will call the Buccaneers a “good” passing team. They throw because they have to.

Now, I want to be clear, I think Emerson will be a starter in this league. I just don’t think he’s there yet. This is not an indictment on him as a talent, but on the concept of singular analytics being the driving force of narratives.

Emerson hasn’t played well against the best passing offenses, so calling him a “lockdown” cornerback is just not true.