The New Orleans Saints have finally released cornerback Brandon Browner. At 31 years old, Browner is getting to a point where his body has begun to decline. He was signed prior to the 2015 season in free agency; the Saints guaranteed him $7.5 million in his three-year $15 million contract.
Not only was the contract ridiculous, but the fact that Browner was paid that much shows how desperate the Saints were for secondary help. Cutting him as a post-June 1 cut will result in the Saints saving $1.3 million against the cap in 2016, as they pushed that dead money to 2017.
There are other Saints players that could see their names on the chopping block, such as Jairus Byrd, who has an annual cap hit of $10,900,000. However, cutting him would result in $11.4 million in dead money. Another is C.J. Spiller, who was just signed this past offseason and had a cap hit of around $4,500,000.
Browner did not have an excellent 2015 production-wise, either, as he only recorded 76 combined tackles, 10 pass defenses and an interception. In fact, he has only had one interception per season for the last three seasons.
With the Saints picking 12th in the 2016 NFL Draft, they could easily look to draft Browner's replacement early on. There is no conceivable way that a player who has racked up 21 bad penalties in one season and had a monstrous cap hit would've been able to stay on the roster. Browner was destined to be released during free agency, but the Saints waited this long, so his dead money hit wouldn't take too much space from their salary cap.
Browner played in all 16 games last season, and the Saints did not hesitate to start him. The problem came when he became the most penalized player in the NFL. Browner was called for 11 defensive holding penalties, three defensive pass interference penalties, three face mask penalties and three unnecessary roughness penalties, among numerous other violations. Browner tallied 21 penalties, which is the most in the NFL by far. The closest person by comparison is Buffalo Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes, with 14 penalties.
