Former New Orleans Saints starting cornerback Brandon Browner has admitted that he played through the entire 2015 regular season with a torn MCL. Browner released a heartfelt statement via his Instagram, saying, "Last year was the most frustrating year for me, those who know me knew I was affected by it." Browner was referring to how his injury affected his play for the entire regular season. The injury was apparently suffered when he took a helmet to his knee during the Saints' first preseason game. He would go on to miss the rest of preseason, as he would attempt to get his body ready for week 1.
Browner tried to stay optimistic as he lost feeling in parts of his knee, which would change the way he would play the game. He was routinely booed by Saints fans since he gave up a ton of big plays to faster wide receivers, and it looks like we now know why. The Saints released him after his base salary was guaranteed for the 2016 season, and that might have been a bit premature, as it appears as though the circumstances were out of his control.
It is a little interesting that Browner tore his MCL and not a soul on the Saints' medical staff knew about it, or at the very least, the team didn't disclose that information to the NFL. Browner started in every regular season game and could have done permanent damage to his knee, which may shorten his NFL career. He did not have a great 2015 season production-wise, 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.
However, if the Saints knew that Browner was dealing with such a serious injury, maybe they would have given him the benefit of the doubt. Browner was destined to be released during free agency, but with this level of injury, he most likely would have been on IR and then attempted to prepare his body for the 2016 season, which could have saved him from getting released.
Browner's primary criticism came when he became the most penalized player in the NFL. He 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. All of those penalties did not sit well with the Saints, and if Sean Payton knew what Browner was going through, he would have most likely benched him.
