B-Max:
Pros:
Quality Play in Deep Coverage (Having Earl Thomas Helps)
Quality Play as a Run Defender
Attacks The Ball Not The Player
Can Play Inside or Out
Cons:
Mediocre In The Short to Intermediate Passing Coverage
Bad Habit of Not Getting His Head Around
Gets Overly Physical At Times (And Gets Away with a lot of Pre-Catch Contact)
Oft-Injured Player
B-Max is a good CB but he's not great CB let alone a consistently good one just yet. A lot of his hype continues to stem from playing lights out during the last 5-8 games of the 2013 season including Play-Offs. However, the pass-rush was also so deep that year, and became absolutely unstoppable in about the same time frame Maxwell became a starter. The defense in whole was playing at an historical level.
Maxwell had some flashes of greatness in 2014 but in whole I thought he was merely average. Again, new Seahawks CB, Cary Williams had the better PFF grade of the two (if ever so slightly). However, it was Maxwell that benefited more from a more extraordinary supporting cast as well as a ball control time of possession offense that tended to keep the Seahawks D off the field. Williams played about 400 more snaps than Maxwell.
Maxwell is young and still growing into his potential, so until he reaches 30, I think he'll continue to get better every year and continue to maximize his game more. But he's far from a shutdown CB many think he is. He's a 7-8 mil CB based on play and potential. At 10.5 million per year, Maxwell is highly overrated for the cost and the Seahawks got a similar player with similar skill in Cary Williams for what is essentially a 1yr, 7m contract. However, Williams will only cost $4.66m this year against the cap, if cut next year Seahawks can choose to split the rest of his signing bonus dead cap across 2 years for 1,166,667 cap hits each.
In comparison, Maxwell will cost 8.7m against the cap this year to Williams' 4.66m. Maxwell will also make another 4.8m in signing bonus costing almost twice as much than Williams in total 2015 money... 13.5m vs 7m. Maxwell can't be cut for savings until the third year of his contract, Eagles took a gamble on Maxwell considering he has yet to play a full season and they are paying him to be the best player on a mediocre defense where as he was just another cog in the wheel here in Seattle.
