Can the Browns rely on Joe Haden to bounce back this year?

Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden has struggled to stay healthy the past two years. Can the Browns rely on him to bounce back this season?

The Cleveland Browns have spent considerable time reworking the roster over the past 18 months.

Much of that work has focused on the defensive secondary, where the Browns added Trey Caldwell, Derrick Kindred, Howard Wilson and Jabrill Peppers via the draft; traded for Jamar Taylor and Calvin Pryor; signed Jason McCourty as a free agent; and acquired Briean Boddy-Calhoun and Ed Reynolds via the waiver wire.

And then there is Joe Haden, the longest-tenured player on the defense as he is entering his eighth season with the Browns. While Haden is a leader among the secondary, injuries have limited him to just 18 games over the past two seasons.

Consequently his play has slipped from 2013 and 2014, when he made the Pro Bowl, and now an argument could be made that Haden is a liability in the secondary, at least according to some metrics at Pro Football Focus:

"Coming off the worst season of his career (2015), Jamar Taylor performed significantly better with his new team. While he did still allow five touchdowns, he had a combined 13 interceptions and pass breakups after recording just one pass breakup in his first three pro seasons combined. Meanwhile, Joe Haden earned a below-average coverage grade for a second-straight year, and had a career-high 10 missed tackles. Really, mostly everyone was below-average in coverage outside of Taylor, but they did play well against the run as a group. The 65 tackles missed by defensive backs, tied for the league-lead with the Rams, is definitely something that needs shoring up next year the Browns want to improve on defense."

It is becoming a familiar story with Haden as it was at this time last year that he was talking about being healthy for the upcoming season after undergoing surgery on his ankle. But then he dealt with a groin injury throughout the 2016 season and spent another offseason recovering from surgery.

As the calendar slowly creeps toward the start of the regular season, not even the Browns sound sure of what to expect from Haden, as defensive backs coach DeWayne Walker told clevelandbrowns.com:

"“We still have time. My thing with these guys is just continuing to try to help improve them. We don’t play until September so we are just going to continue to try to progress to where we need to be by the time we play Pittsburgh.”"

Haden may not be the player he once was, and with his injury history he may be again, but the Browns are still better off with him on the field for 16 games.

While it would be easy for Haden to be down about how the past two seasons went, and with the reality of working under his fifth different defensive coordinator in Cleveland, he remains as positive as ever, according to clevelandbrowns.com:

"“I am just ready to play. I am feeling good. The best thing I can do is just take care of my body, and when I am out here, just go as hard as I can because when you start holding back and when you start thinking about injuries, that is when stuff starts happening to you. I only know one way to play, and that is as hard as I can and just trying to get my job done. I am just working on my craft and trying to get better every day, trying to do everything I can do to help out the squad.”"

Taylor had a nice season in his first year in Cleveland, but until he does it again there is always the fear that he will fall back into the player he was with the Miami Dolphins. McCourty’s release by the Tennessee Titans may have been driven by the salary cap, but he will turn 30 before the start of the regular season and his game is not going to improve while he ages. Boddy-Calhoun was a pleasant surprise last year, but as we’ve seen with other young cornerbacks in Cleveland, putting together successive positive seasons can be difficult.

Next: Top 5 wide receivers Browns will face in 2017

With that much uncertainty, and with a safety group that is even more unsettled and inexperienced, Haden’s veteran leadership is something the Browns will need come the regular season.

The question is, after so many injuries, will Haden be up to the task?