7 defensive players who won't bounce back in 2016

Matt Williamson is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns, and spent the last 10 years at ESPN as a scout and co-host of "The Football Today Podcast."

Things change very quickly in the NFL. For one thing, football is such a physically demanding sport that playing with the slightest of injuries or "losing a step" because of age can be the difference between having a good season and a not-so-great one. Plus, teams change coaches and schemes all the time, and that can have a major effect on a player's productivity during the course of a campaign. Finally, an NFL season is just 16 games, a very small sample size when analyzing a player's effect on the game.

Unfortunately, not everyone bounces back in this brutal game. Below are seven defensive players that are unlikely to bounce back from their down season.

Brandon Browner, Seahawks

Even when Browner became a well-known name as the second cornerback opposite Richard Sherman in Seattle’s amazing pass defense, he was still an overrated commodity. The Seahawks knew it then and allowed him to depart.

Since his time away from Seattle, Browner has been terrible in coverage and has become a penalty machine. There is no question that his great size is alluring and he certainly can play a physical brand of cornerback, which often leads to those penalties, but his change-of-direction is poor and he plays too high.

Back in Seattle, this is probably Browner's last chance to become a major contributor and maybe the Seahawks will be able to coax the most out of him, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Landon Collins, Giants

The Giants had a massive need at safety (they still kind of do) and aggressively traded up in 2015 to select Collins with the first pick on Day 2 of the draft.

Collins has a thick powerful body and was very productive and acclaimed on Alabama’s tremendous defense. But in the NFL, the players around him on defense aren’t clearly more talented than their offensive counterparts and as a strong safety, Collins is forced to cover all sorts of different types of great receivers.

As expected, Collins is far more effective against the run than the pass. But he was quite a liability in coverage and although he is only 22-years-old, we need to question if he is just a throwback in-the-box safety, which in today’s NFL doesn’t give him much value.

Jarvis Jones, Steelers

Jones was the 13th pick in the 2013 draft. After a very productive stint at Georgia, many thought he would be drafted earlier. But Jones didn’t test well during the pre-draft process and fell outside the top dozen picks.

Watching Jones in the NFL, you can see why he didn’t test very well. He isn’t a very good athlete. In fact, many of his sacks in college came on hustle plays or with him beating a clearly inferior blocker. Needless to say, his pass-rush production just hasn’t translated to the NFL.

Making matters worse, Jones isn’t all that great against the run either, whether it is at him or to the other side of the formation. The Steelers opted not to pick up Jones’ fifth-year option and chances are likely that he is playing for a new team in 2017. Expect Pittsburgh to draft an outside linebacker very early next year.

Chris Long, Patriots

Long, now 31 years old, could revitalize his career in New England in more of a rotational and situational role. We have seen Bill Belichick get quite a bit from players from another team with strong pedigrees once they get up in age. But the problem is that Long did very little against the run or pass last year.

Injuries have been a huge problem for Long, who has played in just 18 games over the past two seasons. But even when on the field and healthy, he hasn’t been very productive. Over those 18 games Long has appeared in during the 2014 and 2015 season, he has collected just four sacks.

Manti Te'o, Chargers

Obviously Te’o had a huge name cache entering the league from his fabled days at Notre Dame. Never much of a coverage player, Te’o really isn’t excelling in any area of the position. Surprisingly, he is a big reason why San Diego was so terrible against the run in 2015.

At inside linebacker, the Chargers used an early fourth-round pick on Joshua Perry and fifth-rounder on Jatavis Brown in this latest draft and, in 2015, with their second-round selection drafted Denzel Perryman. The writing is on the wall that Te’o’s days could be numbered. He has done little to make the team feel otherwise.

Vince Wilfork, Texans

Wilfork has been a tremendous player and should garner much discussion when he is eligible for the Hall of Fame. Few have played the nose as well as Wilfork. He is unforgettable.

However, those great days are behind this behemoth. Wilfork still clogs the middle, but isn’t as dominant as he once was in doing so and he offers less against the pass than ever.

Huge space-eating defensive tackles often tend to last in the league a long time. Their job is very defined, they know how to do it and no one expects them to do much outside of a very small area. But pure nose tackles are a dying breed and it might now be time for one of the best that has ever done it to move on. Besides J.J. Watt, Houston’s defensive line is very suspect.

Mario Williams, Dolphins

Much was made about how Williams was unhappy with Rex Ryan’s defensive scheme and that his heart wasn’t in it with the Bills in 2015. Well, that showed up on tape. Williams was a surprisingly ineffective pass-rusher in Buffalo last year and has to now be considered a very average starting NFL defensive end.

Can the former first overall pick recover from such an embarrassing season in his new home of Miami? Possibly, but at 31 years old, the days of Williams racking up double-digit sacks very well could be gone. He provides a noticeable downgrade from Olivier Vernon, who is now with the Giants.

Honorable Mentions: Trent Cole, Elvis Dumervil, Justin Gilbert, DJ Hayden, Marcus Smith