For all the hype heaped on him over the summer, Green Bay Packers cornerback Brandon Cisse is still just a rookie. It's shown up in the early going this season, as teams have targeted the talented second-round pick with decent success.
None of that is surprising. Cisse is a rookie at a highly technical position, one that takes veteran savvy and sleight of hand to fully learn.
He's also improving. Despite being isolated a bit by the Chicago Bears in Week 5, he delivered an excellent performance, the best of his young career.
It'll be a rocky ride with plenty of ups and downs, bumps and breakouts, and Packers fans are here for all of it.
Brandon Cisse has had his struggles, but that comes with the territory
Cisse has rather surprisingly posted a bottom-five passer rating, 147.4, among 104 cornerbacks graded by Pro Football Focus. That number results largely from a few explosive plays; Cisse's 16.9 yards allowed per catch ranks 12th-highest. Perhaps it was premature to call him a CB1 candidate over Keisean Nixon. The eighth-year veteran is off to a great start.
PFF also charges Cisse with six missed tackles, a somewhat alarming figure this early in the season. Listed at 6-feet and 189 pounds, he may have to bulk up just a bit to drag down ballcarriers more dependably.
But that's only half the picture, and Cisse has balanced the bad with plenty of good. Inconsistency is the name of a rookie's game. Even PFF isn't altogether out on him; his 59.0 overall grade ranks 57th at the position, on a fairly heavy workload.
The Packers had far too many problems in Weeks 1 through 3, most of them having to do with a historically awful offensive line, for Cisse's flaws to be a major point of discussion. Numbers do lie, but statistically, his play reveals a stark divide before and after Week 3.
In his first three games, Cisse allowed eight catches for 168 yards on 12 targets, including two touchdowns, and a 149.1 passer rating according to Pro Football Reference.
Over the past two weeks: three catches for 26 yards on five targets, no touchdowns and a passer rating of 73.1. Against Chicago, Cisse surrendered just one completion on three passes.
Those are just the numbers; Packers fans have seen his flashes of brilliance, teasing his high-end potential.
Cisse's disruption in DB blitzes is an underrated part of his game; his 1.5 sacks are tied for fourth on the team. Only one other cornerback in the NFL, the Giants' Dru Philips with two, has more than 1.0 this season. Per PFF, his four total pressures rank third at the position.
Are Cisse and the Packers about to get carved up by Dak Prescott and his two-headed receiver monster, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, on Sunday night? Well, probably. Those three take even the best corners' lunch.
But we'll be here for the lows alongside the highs, and this week's tall task notwithstanding, there should be more of the latter before long.
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