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The Falcons should pass on recently cut Joe Haden, because lets he honest, he’s terrible

The former Browns cornerback was a big name three or four years ago. That was also the last time he was any good.

NFL: New York Giants at Cleveland Browns Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

Did you know that Joe Haden is only 28? Try not to fall out of your chair. This guy is younger than Robert Alford. Why does everyone think he’s 32 or 33? Probably because he is ahead of his career arc by like five years. He signed a huge deal, then dealt with injuries, was awful when healthy, and now he’s so bad the Cleveland Browns don’t want him.

That’s right, Haden was cut earlier today.

The Cleveland to Atlanta pipeline has produced plenty of big hits. The Julio Jones trade. Taylor Gabriel. Alex Mack. Kyle Shanahan for a 18.5 game stretch. Haden is none of these players. He hasn’t played in 16 games since his rookie year way back in 2010, and has only 18 games in the last two years.

Has his play even been good? Nope. Haden was pretty widely criticized for his play in Cleveland recently, and the team apparently did not even want to keep him around for one more year.

Haden will have his choice of every team in the league maybe 4 or 5 teams, and is certainly looking for a chance to start and a chance to get paid. He really has neither option in Atlanta. His very best option is filling Brian Poole’s spot. I’m not sure he an outperform Poole, even if given time to learn the playbook and plenty of practice reps.

Haden’s likeliest landing spot is CB4 just ahead of C.J. Goodwin, which is probably not a place he’d be excited about going to. It’d be an improvement, but a minor one that the Falcons could not afford to overpay for.

Pass on Haden. The Falcons don’t need a bad, expensive cornerback.