Just the other day we heard whispers that the Cowboys were interested in Brandon Carr, those particular whispers intrigued me enough to take a look at what kind of ball player Carr really is. Carr has spent all of his short career with the Kansas City Chiefs, and has been more of an under-the-radar corner because he's playing across from one of the best young corners in the league, Brandon Flowers. It's hard to know exactly what kind of player a guy is if he isn't playing a premium skill position, where you can simply go to NFL.com and look at his stats, so I've taken my research to ProFootballFocus.com.
According to a recent article on PFF, where they continued their 2012 Free Agent rankings, they listed Carr as the #4 corner on the open market (keep in mind, he could still get tagged, but it's sounds unlikely) listed behind Brent Grimes (Likely to be tagged), Ledarius Webb (RFA), and Cortland Finnegan. Here's what they had to say
4) Brandon Carr
Age as of September 1st, 2012: 26
2011 Grade: +2.7
Key Stat: Allowed fewer than half the targets into his coverage to be complete (39 of 79).
Behind the Numbers: Carr didn’t have the best of seasons last year, but even so, he allowed fewer than half of all balls thrown his way to be complete and got his hands to more than 10 passes. At just 26 when the season starts, he is the youngest free agent option around, and with Stanford Routt just signed in KC, he’s likely to be on the move. Carr has shown to have very good coverage skills and gets to a lot of passes, making him a very attractive option to anybody looking for a long-term answer at corner.
I continued to dig on PFF, because to be honest, I just can't get enough, I absolutely love their work, and use it on a daily basis when I want to know more about "non-skill" players, or those players out there that are hard to judge by stats alone. I found the following chart, which ranked QB completion percentages when targeting particular corners, as you can see, Carr was the 10th best in the league when it came to completions against vs attempts.
Rank | Name | Team | TA | Rec | % Ct |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Darrelle Revis | NYJ | 85 | 35 | 41.2 |
2 | Ike Taylor | PIT | 96 | 40 | 41.7 |
3 | Brent Grimes | ATL | 56 | 25 | 44.6 |
4 | Chris Gamble | CAR | 60 | 27 | 45.0 |
5 | Sheldon Brown | CLV | 76 | 35 | 46.1 |
6 | Antonio Cromartie | NYJ | 84 | 39 | 46.4 |
7 | Richard Sherman | SEA | 84 | 39 | 46.4 |
8 | Asante Samuel | PHI | 61 | 29 | 47.5 |
9 | Joe Haden | CLV | 85 | 42 | 49.4 |
10 | Brandon Carr | KC | 79 | 39 |
49.4 |
The next chart I was able to find from PFF focuses on QB rating when throwing to that Corner, as you can see Brandon Carr ranked 8th in the league in 2011 with a 61.7 QB rating against, pretty impressive.
Rank | Name | Team | NFL Rating |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Darrelle Revis | NYJ | 45.6 |
2 | Asante Samuel | PHI | 52.4 |
3 | Chris Gamble | CAR | 53.3 |
4 | Ike Taylor | PIT | 54.8 |
5 | Lardarius Webb | BLT | 56.2 |
6 | Richard Sherman | SEA | 57.3 |
7 | Patrick Robinson | NO | 59.3 |
8 | Brandon Carr | KC | 61.7 |
9 | Carlos Rogers | SF | 61.9 |
10 | Brent Grimes | ATL | 62.9 |
The next chart is information from 2010, as you read above in PFF's analysis of Carr they pointed to the fact that he had a down season in 2011, so I was happy to find the next chart, which gives you a good idea of what kind of player he was a year before. As you can see below, in 2010 Carr was 11th in the league in receptions allowed per coverage snap. According to PFF, Carr was in coverage a total of 700 times in 2010, out of those 700 snaps, he allowed 51 receptions, for a 7.29% reception/cover snap, which is a pretty impressive number.
Rank | Player | Team | Cover Snaps | Receptions Allowed | REC/COV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nnamdi Asomugha | OAK | 441 | 13 | 2.95% |
2 | Asante Samuel | PHI | 446 | 21 | 4.71% |
3 | Darrelle Revis | NYJ | 592 | 28 | 4.73% |
4 | Sean Smith | MIA | 448 | 24 | 5.36% |
5 | Rashean Mathis | JAX | 567 | 39 | 6.88% |
6 | Quentin Jammer | SD | 576 | 40 | 6.94% |
7 | Bradley Fletcher | SL | 601 | 42 | 6.99% |
8 | Tramon Williams | GB | 792 | 56 | 7.07% |
9 | Josh Wilson | BLT | 451 | 32 | 7.10% |
10 | Sam Shields | GB | 543 | 39 | 7.18% |
11 | Brandon Carr | KC | 700 | 51 | 7.29% |
12 | Kelly Jennings | SEA | 625 | 46 | 7.36% |
13 | Tim Jennings | CHI | 621 | 46 | 7.41% |
14 | Ike Taylor | PIT | 763 | 57 | 7.47% |
15 | Corey Webster | NYG | 576 | 44 | 7.64% |
16 | Stanford Routt | OAK | 548 | 42 | 7.66% |
17 | Chris Gamble | CAR | 377 | 29 | 7.69% |
18 | Champ Bailey | DEN | 489 | 38 | 7.77% |
19 | Leon Hall | CIN | 563 | 44 | 7.82% |
20 | Vontae Davis | MIA | 566 | 45 | 7.95% |
The last chart on the list is one that gives us a very good indication of what Carr did while in coverage, it is very similar to the chart above, but this time PFF included times beaten (receptions), times challenged (thrown at), and opportunities (coverage snaps) to give us their Catch% per Cover snap. What I take away from this chart, is that his receptions allowed vs times thrown at were very similar to 2011, and in my opinion, if I have a corner that is going to allow less than 50% completion, then I am a happy person.
Rank | Player | Team | Receptions Allowed | Thrown At | Cover Snaps | Catch% per Cover Snap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tramon Williams | GB | 56 | 123 | 792 | 0.0575% |
2 | Brandon Carr | KC | 51 | 111 | 700 | 0.0656% |
3 | Antonio Cromartie | NYJ | 55 | 115 | 683 | 0.0700% |
4 | Darrelle Revis | NYJ | 28 | 67 | 592 | 0.0706% |
5 | Ike Taylor | PIT | 57 | 102 | 763 | 0.0732% |
6 | Stanford Routt | OAK | 42 | 99 | 548 | 0.0774% |
7 | Brent Grimes | ATL | 67 | 127 | 668 | 0.0790% |
8 | Charles Tillman | CHI | 67 | 111 | 751 | 0.0804% |
9 | Brandon Flowers | KC | 55 | 109 | 625 | 0.0807% |
10 | Tim Jennings | CHI | 46 | 91 | 621 | 0.0814% |
11 | Devin McCourty | NE | 58 | 104 | 685 | 0.0814% |
12 | Bradley Fletcher | SL | 42 | 82 | 601 | 0.0852% |
13 | Chris Carr | BLT | 62 | 100 | 699 | 0.0887% |
14 | Quentin Jammer | SD | 40 | 78 | 576 | 0.0890% |
15 | Antoine Cason | SD | 52 | 100 | 562 | 0.0925% |
16 | Cortland Finnegan | TEN | 70 | 105 | 713 | 0.0935% |
17 | Charles Woodson | GB | 56 | 91 | 658 | 0.0935% |
18 | Corey Webster | NYG | 44 | 81 | 576 | 0.0943% |
19 | Kelly Jennings | SEA | 46 | 78 | 625 | 0.0944% |
20 | Ronald Bartell | SL | 50 | 96 | 548 | 0.0950% |
So if we look at the 2011 charts vs. the 2010 charts, and compare his completion percentage, we find that in 2011 he allowed 49.3% completions in 2011 and 45.1% in 2010, so there was a minimal drop in his completions allowed per target, but not enough to scoff at, and still less than 50%.
In conclusion, I want to add one more thing, too many times I hear the argument of "If he's such a good player, then why would (insert team) let him go?" Well that's the beauty of PFF, they help to eliminate that question, and offer a better perspective and an unbiased look at what these guys are doing week in and week out, especially for a player on a team who you rarely get a chance to watch, and don't really know enough about to offer an educated opinion on him. I believe these charts give us a good idea of what kind of player Dallas would be paying, and considering they will probably be paying a premium price for him, given the fact that he's young, talented, and at the top of the free agent market, I believe it would be money well spent.
(All information was gathered from ProFootballFocus.com)