Tale of the Tape: Tyvon Branch

I watched all or most of three games to get an idea of Branch's strengths and weaknesses and came away impressed with what I saw.The three games I watched were Week 9 against Denver, week 14 against Green Bay and week 17 against San Diego.I wanted to watch some games later in the year because of the lockout. Defense takes longer than offense to gel and with a shortened offseason, most of the defenses in the NFL had coverage issues early on that are not indicative of their typical coverage abilities.First, Branch has very good burst and takes the time to diagnose a play before exploding to put himself into a position to make a play. There are many players who do not take that moment to read the play and simply react. Those players are the most likely to fall victim to play action or other misdirection plays. Branch has enough speed to be able to read the play and then still be able to get in front of the action to make a positive play.Branch is smaller than many Strong Safetie...