LiveBall Sports

Joe Haden was the seventh overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.  He was drafted out of a major college powerhouse, the University of Florida.  He was also — in the weeks leading up to and through the draft — anonymous.  This was a star studded class he was part of, and Haden fell by the wayside.  Forgotten through the first six picks of the draft, Haden was drafted 7th overall to the Cleveland Browns, who took Haden at a time when LeBron James was still very much a benevolent figure.  And despite the popularity of the NFL in this country, the Browns became somewhat of an afterthought in Cleveland during the summer of 2010.

While the emergence of fan favorites Peyton Hillis and Colt McCoy helped to put the Browns back on the map, Joe Haden’s rookie season went largely unnoticed by the general populous.   The top end of the 2010 NFL draft was loaded, but Haden was probably the second or third best player in the group as a rookie.  Trent Williams (ineffectiveness) and Russell Okung (injuries) both struggled as rookies, but look like solid tackles for the future.  Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy look like superstar defensive tackles on up and coming teams.  Sam Bradford didn’t accomplish much as a rookie, but looked poised and accurate behind the Rams line, which bodes well for the future.  Rolando McClain struggled in the middle of the Oakland defense as a rookie.  Tyson Alualu was solid if unspectacular in a shapeshift Jags front.  And CJ Spiller was disappointing as a rookie.

But the comparison I want to make here is between Haden and Eric Berry.  Berry, of course, was elected to the pro bowl and was named by his peers to the NFL Top 100 Players of 2011 list.  Haden was not.  I think it would be fallacious to make either of the following claims: that Berry’s Chiefs were a better team than Haden’s Browns just because they made the playoffs, and secondly, that Berry had a bigger impact on his team’s defensive output than Haden did.  It’s easy to see the promise that Berry brings to the Chiefs secondary, as even as a mistake-prone rookie, Berry seemed to find the football.  But Haden might have done him one better.  Haden was largely being avoided by teams in the second half of the year, who were picking on the former Cleveland no. 1 corner, Eric Wright.

It’s hard to say right now if Haden will have a better career than Berry, but the point isn’t to decide one way or the other based on one year of game evidence.  It’s to point out that Joe Haden is a second year player who is just 22 years old, and could go to every pro bowl between 2011 and 2018 if things break right for him.  This isn’t that shocking considering that he was a top ten pick in one of the most loaded draft classes of all time, and won a national championship with the Florida Gators, as part of the 2007 recruiting class that Urban Meyer secured after winning his first national championship.

That player very quietly turned in a rookie year that promises a very strong all-pro level career.  And I hope that he doesn’t have to do it all in relative anonymity.