I posted a question about this taunton yew a while back, and got some great responses.

One concern was the planting distance from the foundation. This pic makes it look skewed a bit. The planting is actually about 3' from the foundation. The long downspout extension has been removed, and the splash block ensures that the yew is not getting any excess runoff.

So, previously I mentioned the browning that was going on. I snipped back the brown you see in the picture here. In all, it was probably 1/3 of the shrub.
I looked for evidence of pests. There are none. Spring is trying to break here, and what is green does seem to have the little buds of growth.

However, there is another symptom that is concerning to me. There are a few branches that look green, but the needles look thinner and are not pliable at all. Very brittle.
I noticed these while pruning, but left them alone.

Any ideas? For what it's worth, this was the worst winter on record here. (literally) There is very, very little winter burn on the other yews. They all look wonderful.