The real stars of this group are Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde, who rank second and third, respectively, in coverage grade among safeties. We're ranking the division by position group. Davis and Dean form one of the best cornerback pairings in the NFL. His 19.1% forced incompletion rate was a top-five mark at the cornerback position last year, tied with Jaire Alexander. Aug 3, 2021. Terrell. Alexander has those piercing eyes that make him and Randall Cobb look related, and I cant imagine having to line up against him with those things staring a hole through the crown of my nose. But with Horn getting shut down after a Week 3 injury and Henderson struggling to get acclimated after getting traded to the team a month into the season, it was a subpar year for the secondary. The safety pairing of Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer may also be hoping for a bounce-back year, with the latter having allowed a burn on 13 of his 28 targets at free safety in 2020. He recorded coverage grades of at least 72.0 in each of his first three seasons in the league and has allowed just 51.4% of the passes thrown into his coverage to be completed. Chidobe Awuzie, Cincinnati Bengals Humphrey impacts the games in all the ways you want him to. The Raiders secondary has received its fair share of criticism in the Jon Gruden-Mike Mayock years, with doubts cast over the merits of selecting Trayvon Mullen in the second round in 2019 and Damon Arnette in the first last year. * - denotes 2022 prospect. This kind of ranking for the Chicago Bears was expected this season, considering their cornerback situation outside of Jaylon Johnson. Marshon Lattimore struggled a bit relative to expectations in 2020, but hes back with a vengeance in 2021. Discover Next Gen Stats News, Charts, and Statistics. targeted, which leads to his interceptions. Peters and Humphrey are the only top-10 duo on this list and a big reason why Baltimores secondary has had the success that it has over the past two seasons. Published: Oct 20, 2022 at 03:19 PM . 2021 NFL Defensive Secondary Rankings, by Unit 32. While Pittsburgh ranked in the top 10 in EPA allowed per pass play for the season, they struggled quite a bit when not producing pressure on the quarterback. J.C. Jackson isnt the most consistent cornerback in the world, but hes not necessarily the gambler that Howard and Marcus Peters tend to be. Pittsburgh also went from second to 29th in passer rating allowed on deep targets year over year. Free-agent signing William Jackson III was an up-and-down performer. The lack of talent and experience was apparent, especially without safety Marcus Maye, who ruptured his Achilles midway through the season. He recorded just one interception and two pass breakups on 42 targets, allowing a career-high 96.7 passer rating into his coverage. . sustained a top-five pass defense in terms of expected points added (EPA) allowed per pass down the final stretch of the 2021 regular season. Even if the young Jaycee Horn hadnt gone down to injury, this would have been an outstanding move for the Panthers. Bears. 28. Reed, provided some grounds for optimism as his burn yards per target average of 8.21 put him 15th among corners with at least 200 coverage snaps. Veteran Artie Burns and seventh-round rookie Thomas Graham Jr. were small-sample darlings with 85.1 and 90.6 coverage grades, respectively, but they didnt get enough reps to make a sizable dent. As you can probably expect, the quarterbacks are at the top and there are plenty of wide receivers. Reed and Tre . Cross died in 2021. If that remains the case, Buffalos secondary should stay among the best in the league even with only marginal improvements made by his teammates. Much of the Raiders presence in the top 10 is tied to the astute acquisition of veteran corner Casey Hayward, whose adjusted open percentage of 17.3 was the fifth-best in the NFL among players at all defensive positions, though a less impressive burn yards per target average of 11.20 reflects how often he was left on an island for the Los Angeles Chargers last year. Pro Football Focus graded rookie Sauce Gardner as the best corner in the NFL. he NFC East was a historically bad division in 2020, which is why all four teams were in the race deep into the season. Who looks to be a top-10 cornerback in the NFL right now? Still seems like we're waiting for the first domino to fall with the Bears . Ask any executive or coach around the league at this However, Miamis cornerback really blossomed in 2020, intercepting a league-high 10 passes. Cornerback was a clear need for the Jaguars entering this offseason. He does the razzle dazzle better than any quarterback, but he . The cornerback made a total of $10.66 million during his brief NFL career. Return to Top; Players. Yet, there were signs this group is primed to make further progress in 2021, most of which came from starting corner Jamel Dean. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. And he only got better as the season progressed. Should the Giants opt to move on from the 27-year-old cornerback, they would clear $8.6 million . Bobby Wagner 8452. This group should contend for the top spot next season. No group of cornerbacks played more man coverage than the Miami Dolphins. Jackson burst onto the scene with a 90.4 coverage grade in his first season of action back in 2017. Hes never recorded a PFF grade lower than 70.0 impressive consistency for a cornerback often tasked with tough assignments and is coming off the best PFF grade since his second year in the league. worst 2021 cornerback. He is expected to compete with 2020 first-round pick Damon Arnette for one of the starting jobs in Las Vegas, reuniting with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. He isnt at the top of the CB rankings yet simply because this is all so new. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. When hes been asked to man up against some of the best receivers in the NFL, hes delivered. Veteran Casey Hayward Jr. who played in Bradley's scheme with the Los Angeles Chargers was the 13th-highest graded outside corner of the regular season, while rookie Nate Hobbs was the highest-graded slot corner. ** - denotes 2023 prospect. NFL's Next Gen Stats captures real time location data, speed and acceleration for every player, every play on every inch of the field. His 84.6 PFF grade finished as the third-best at the position. The Broncos head into 2021 with questions still abounding over their quarterbacks, but there is no doubt they have a championship-caliber defense, of which the secondary looks to be the strength. Design by Matt Sisneros. Rhodes went from allowing a league-high 84.3% of the passes into his coverage to be completed in 2019 to just 50.7% in 2020 with Indianapolis. Buffalos secondary endured a crushing blow in Week 12 when CB1. 1 cornerbacks in the NFC South are tasked with. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Hes a wide receiver baiting quarterbacks into throwing passes that he can jump. He has picked up coverage grades between 70.4 and 72.4 every season, gradually increasing his playing time each year. Tennessees loss has turned into the Giants gain. White does a fantastic job of toeing the line between aggressive and reckless. Figures indicate statistics each team allowed to their opponents. T.J. Green has played because of . Eagles: 4-11-1. Fuller allowed just 53% of the passes into his coverage to be completed with four interceptions and nine pass breakups. Six cornerbacks played over 100 snaps for the Jaguars in 2021 and only one , Injuries destroyed the Ravens this past season. There is a perception that Shermans better days are behind him, but entering his age-33 season, there is still plenty of room for Sherman to take a step back and still be one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL. Adoree Jackson, New York Giants He returns to the field in 2022, a huge boost . name season tm gp tkl ast comb sck scky int int yds int td ff fr fr td; jahleel addae: 2021 The Buccaneers game in Week 5 was the culmination of bad luck early in the season, and it resulted in Howard allowing a season-high 89 yards in coverage. Jones matched his interception total across the first five seasons of his career last year with Miami, but it was his worst season from a production allowed standpoint since making the switch to cornerback in 2018. Detroits secondary has been problematic over the past few years, and it didnt get any better in Year 1 under Dan Campbell. Outside of safety Derwin James, the Chargers' secondary left a lot to be desired in 2021. That's when deals are officially negotiated and reported signings fly across . A.J. In 2019 and 2020, for instance, he played more in the slot than out wide. It hasnt taken Alexander very long to establish himself as one of the leagues best coverage cornerbacks. In both 2019 and 2020, he recorded a pressure rate below 9% (per SIS Datahub). In a pass-heavy league, the cornerback position has grown into one of the most important positions on the football field. His addition, along with the signing of Joe Haden, helped stabilize a turbulent cornerback position in Pittsburgh over these last two seasons. That all came to a halt with the Chargers in 2020, as Hayward earned a PFF grade of just 59.5 while allowing nearly 17 yards per reception into his coverage. The Rams' pass-defense unit regressed some from 2020, but make no mistake: This is still an above-average group. Nik Needham was an underrated player among the group by producing a top-10 slot coverage grade in the NFL. Opposing quarterbacks netted a 71.8 passer rating when throwing at one of Clevelands outside cornerbacks this season, the lowest among the 32 defenses. Obviously, this is a subjective endeavor, and we could argue for days about the names that are too high or too low. Carlton Davis may draw the more demanding assignments, but Dean has been just about as good as Tampa Bay could have hoped for in his role over the past two seasons. Another of those factors was health, as Darby played over 600 defensive snaps in 2020 for the first time in four seasons. With that said, here are my cornerback rankings for the 2022 NFL draft: 1. They made a league-leading 23 plays on the ball from the slot en route to allowing the lowest passer rating (71.1). Which team has the most wins as road dogs since 2015? Eric Kendricks 639 # . Jalen Ramsey, Los Angeles Rams. Williams is Denver's long-term answer at running back . Lattimores PFF grade has fallen from 86.1 as a rookie to 77.5 (2018), 65.6 (2019) and 59.1 (2020) in the three years since 2017. If he can replicate that impact as a rookie, the Raiders should be in extremely good shape in the defensive backfield. As the passing game has furthered its position as the dominant and most critical aspect of NFL attacks, the need for a secondary with the talent to regularly withstand aerial assaults led by a deep crop of quarterbacks has become an increasingly pressing one. Humphrey impacts the games in all the ways you want him to. As the teams big free-agent acquisition at the position, Griffin does bring plenty of experience for a younger player. David Carr constructs his own ranking of the top 10 cornerbacks, but All-Pro . His 75.8 coverage grade in 2020 ranked 15th among all qualifying cornerbacks across the league, and he was called for just two penalties all year. Since 2019, Marlon Humphreys done exactly that in Wink Martindales aggressive man-to-man scheme. Not a single one of Dallas' top eight defensive backs by snaps earned a coverage grade in poor territory below 60.0. Holland was the highest-graded safety since Week 9 by over four grading points. Minnesotas defensive backs rank 10th in aggregate coverage rating, performing 5% better than average. The defense endured blows at multiple position groups, including in the secondary with, Detroits secondary has been problematic over the past few years, and it didnt get any better in Year 1 under Dan Campbell. Congratulations, Arizona. While Gang Green endured a turbulent 2019, Poole was one of the team's top performers week in and week out. Christian D'Andrea. Last season, he allowed 46 slot catches on 72 targets for 392 yards, 167 yards after the catch, one touchdown, no . His goal is not to make it so a quarterback doesnt want to throw the ball his way. 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. Alexander was still the same playmaker in 2020, but he was much more stingy in coverage, allowing just 353 receiving yards all season including Green Bays two postseason games despite logging nearly 600 coverage snaps. Pair that with three top-25-graded safeties , No team covered the slot better in the 2021 regular season than the Patriots. He was one of the league's worst corners by nearly every metric, which led to the new regime cutting him outright. Find out which wide receivers to upgrade, downgrade and avoid for Week 1 in fantasy football by using a full cheat sheet that breaks down every WR vs. CB matchup. Six cornerbacks played over 100 snaps for the Jaguars in 2021 and only one Shaquill Griffin produced a coverage grade above 60.0. They consistently ranked near the bottom of the league in every metric imaginable, including defensive back, Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley brought his patented Seahawk Cover 3 defense and got the right players in place to carry it out at a quality level. This week, were evaluating defensive backs. Byron Murphy, Arizona Cardinals12. via Seth Galina. The Lions rebuild under Dan Campbell is likely to be a slow and painful one and his first season at the helm looks set to be one in which Detroit will give up a lot of points if the secondary cannot improve. (Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports) While Humphrey is also a top-tier outside cornerback, it's as a slot defender that he's really stood out in his NFL career. Detroits defensive backs aggregate coverage grade is 27% below average. Injuries destroyed the Ravens this past season. He has earned overall grades between 64.7 and 72.9 in every season since 2012, barring a career-high 82.5 grade in his first year with the Giants in 2016. Xavien Howard picked an opportune time to hold out for a new contract.. We rank all 32 teams in 10 different position groups, plus we offer an overall roster outlook. Hes one of the few thatll travel anywhere on the defense to cover an offenses best weapon. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports) Listen . Ranking who the top 32 cornerbacks in the NFL are for 2021 is like trying to rank your children. Who led the NFL in receiving in 2021? TreDavious White has been one of the top cornerbacks in the league since the minute he stepped on an NFL field. who passed away in February 2021 at age 81, played cornerback for the Eagles from 1961 to 1965, earning two Pro Bowl nods, and . Episode 2 of the "Top 100 Players of 2022" aired on Sunday, with three cornerbacks making the list between Nos. This season, the division is up for grabs yet again. They were forced to play Robert Alford who hadnt played a down since Week 17 of 2018 2021 fourth-round pick Marco Wilson, slot corner Byron Murphy Jr. and NFL journeyman Antonio Hamilton at outside corner this season. Slay will look to rebound under a new coaching staff and get back to making plays on the ball after ranking second in the league in forced incompletions (75) across his seven years in Detroit. But from the slot, the Seahawks' coverage unit was a bit of a nightmare. 30. Ward was one of the first to fit the new modern mold of NFL cornerback. His 3,546 regular-season defensive snaps over the past four seasons are a top-10 mark at the position. The 6-foot-2, 202-pounder earned a few poor game grades early on, but he soon righted those wrongs. NFC West teams gained even more firepower at the quarterback position in a dramatic offseason, magnifying the issues for a Seattle secondary that is a long way from the Legion of Boom. Despite being drafted in the top five back in 2018 and playing on a team generating plenty of buzz heading into the 2021 season, Ward is often overlooked as one of the NFLs top cornerbacks. NFL defenses will ask very different things of their cornerbacks, depending on the scheme they run. He had one of the highest forced incompletion rates in the league this past year with Washington one of several contributing factors to the multi-year deal that Denver offered him. Bradberry was the fourth-most valuable cornerback in the league in 2020 per PFF WAR, with career-best coverage numbers across the board. Heck, he played more snaps in the slot in 2020 than he did on the outside. Thats a tip of the cap to everyone in the secondary for stepping up, including 2020 seventh-rounder Dane Jackson, who didnt allow a touchdown in any regular-season start after replacing White. The 2021 first-round pick was the lone Falcons defensive back to play 200 snaps and earn a PFF grade north of 60.0. Jackson missed the majority of the 2020 season with a lingering knee injury, but he profiled as one of the most promising young cornerbacks in the league before last year, fresh off a career-high 82.5 coverage grade in 2019. 1 wide receiver in man coverage. > 2021 NFL > Advanced Stats. Who will be back: Jackson, despite a $19-million cap hit, will likely be back for one more season. Theres a reason he has received plenty of interest since his release. Strong safety Kareem Jackson was ninth among all players at the position in burn yards per target allowed with 7.76. Bradberry's 2021 season, though, was abysmal. Hell still give up a big play here and there (as his yards per reception allowed shows), but thats the nature of being an aggressive cornerback. Having an elite cornerback who is capable of traveling with an opposing team's top receiving threat, such as Jalen Ramsey, can take pressure off other players in the secondary. 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