In 2020, Howard led the league in interceptions (10) and pass breakups (20) for his first All-Pro nod. A few coverage lapses have led to big plays this year, but that happens in a scheme that relies on communication both pre- and post-snap. The Texans dont have many players on their roster who they can rely on for steady play, but Roby is one of the few, assuming he doesnt receive another six-game suspension in 2021. The dude still smacks like a truck as a tackler and despite allowing over 60% completions, hes only allowing 5.5 yards per target and under 10 yards per catch. Age: 28 (29 on 8/4/23) Playing time: 16 games, 316 special teams snaps (77.07% of team total), 63 defensive snaps (5.99% of team total) Key statistics: 19 tackles, 1 quarterback hit, 4 pass . He also stands out as one of the better zone-coverage cornerbacks in the NFL, ranking in the 94th percentile of all cornerbacks on such plays during the 2020 season. But his play has been up and down over that four-year stretch. Nik Needham was an underrated player among the group by producing a top-10 slot coverage grade in the NFL. 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. After recording three straight coverage grades of at least 85.0 in New Englands defense, Gilmore put up just a 58.5 coverage grade in 2020. He should once again be put in a position to succeed under Fangio next season. Carlton Davis, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 16. T.J. Green has played because of . NFL quarterback rankings 2021. Copyright 2019-2023. His technical inconsistencies are the only thing keeping him from being among that next tier up. Fuller is set to be reunited with Vic Fangio in Denver. 14. 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. Which team has the most wins as road dogs since 2015? 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. Buffalos secondary endured a crushing blow in Week 12 when CB1. Going into the 2021 season, there are several teams that stand out as best prepared to do that with the talent they possess in the defensive backfield. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. They made a league-leading 23 plays on the ball from the slot en route to allowing the lowest passer rating (71.1). Jaire Alexander is responsible for my favorite troll of all time on a football field. In 2017, Slay led the league in interceptions and . The Bengals handed out two big contracts on the defensive side of the ball last offseason. Carolina ranked 24th in outside coverage grade and allowed the fourth-worst passer rating to the outside (107.8). Who looks to be a top-10 cornerback in the NFL right now? However, his return came at outside cornerback for the Football Team in 2020, where he put up impressive coverage numbers at his new position. Houstons fielded the lowest-graded secondary in the NFL by a whopping eight grading points. From Week 7 on, he was one of the 25 highest-graded cornerbacks in the NFL. Verrett fought back to earn a starting job with the 49ers in 2020 and put up a top-20 PFF grade among qualifying cornerbacks on a career-high 803 defensive snaps. 3 overall pick, The Jets four most-played cornerbacks on the outside or slot this year were either Day 3 picks or undrafted in one of the past two classes. 11. Brian Poole (not re-signed) was the only cornerback to hold opponents to negative EPA per target in 2020. . Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. worst 2021 cornerback. Hes a unicorn playing cornerback in a world of 511, 190-pound movers, and we dont acknowledge that enough. The 2021 top-10 pick allowed over 60 yards just once last season and led the draft class in combined interceptions and pass breakups (12). As a result, Diggs' coverage grade rang in just above the 50th percentile among cornerbacks. With modern NFL rules, its a disadvantage not to have the type of foot speed Ward possesses. Heck, he played more snaps in the slot in 2020 than he did on the outside. 1 cornerback who will allow them to play more man coverage if they desire. Kansas City's defense looked dead in the water after the first five weeks of the season. but it was his worst season from a production allowed standpoint since making the switch to cornerback in 2018. 1 cornerbacks in the NFC South are tasked with. Tennessees loss has turned into the Giants gain. This week, were evaluating defensive backs. Jones allowed 1.4 yards per coverage snap . Opposing quarterbacks netted a 71.8 passer rating when throwing at one of Clevelands outside cornerbacks this season, the lowest among the 32 defenses. The NFL's top 11 safeties. Awuzie was the second-highest graded cornerback of the regular season, while Hilton was the seventh-highest graded slot corner in coverage. Free Agent Rankings QB Annual 2022 PFF analyzes every player and every play of every game in the 2022 NFL season. Pair that with three top-25-graded safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. (second), Jordan Whitehead (18th) and Mike Edwards (22nd) and you have yourself one of the best secondaries in the NFL ready to help the franchise compete for another Super Bowl. 4 . Only three Power 5 defenders gave up fewer. Fuller was back in Washington for the 2020 season following a two-year stint in Kansas City. Williams earned coverage grades above 81.0 in each of the last two years and made some remarkable plays on the ball in coverage in Brandon Staleys defense in 2020. Not a single one of Dallas' top eight defensive backs by snaps earned a coverage grade in poor territory below 60.0. Instead, hes heading in the wrong direction. In his first two seasons, A.J. He finished with four picks, made the PFWA All-Rookie Team and was PFF's 41st-graded corner in 2021, just behind Colts Pro Bowler Kenny Moore. 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. The Seahawks appear to be banking on Ahkello Witherspoon making a leap he never managed with the San Francisco 49ers. His 3.2% missed tackle rate was the second-lowest among safeties. Those struggles wouldnt last, though. Houston Texans: Whitney Mercilus, OLB. 2020 Points-Allowed Rank: No. 32. And we mustnt forget about the impact of rookie safety Jevon Holland. No team covered the slot better in the 2021 regular season than the Patriots. Discover Next Gen Stats News, Charts, and Statistics. Minnesota put forth some of the worst cornerback play in the NFL. The rankings were produced by multiplying each players coverage baseline by a projected target share for 2021, which is dependent on their position on the depth chart, with the results then aggregated at the team level to produce that defenses coverage grade. 28. But it's easy to know who the favorite is. NFL Player Grades - current. It was only natural that the prototype for cornerback shifted as well. Brian Poole, New York Jets. Davis has put up a solid grading profile and coverage stats across the past two seasons in Tampa Bay despite that tough slate of opposing wide receivers. Ranking who the top 32 cornerbacks in the NFL are for 2021 is like trying to rank your children. From Week 12 to the end of the regular season, he was one of the 10 highest-graded cornerbacks in the NFL. Only three inside corners gave up fewer burn yards per snap than Ugo Amadi (1.14) in 2020 while safety Jamal Adams was not the coverage liability many made him out to be; the Seahawks sack leader last season gave up a big play on 10 of his 41 targets. His on-field and sideline hijinx make it look like he legitimately loves every second of playing football. Only one defensive back nickel cornerback Tavierre Thomas didnt produce a sub-60.0 coverage grade. 1. 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. Personally, I want a guy who travels up and down the field on an assignment basis against the opposing teams best receivers. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. It just wasnt all there for him in 2020. Jackson hasnt quite reached those lofty heights in the three years since, but he is coming off his best statistical season since 2017, with just 52% of the passes into his coverage being completed in 2020. Despite a productive three-year run with the Atlanta Falcons, Poole's one-year, $3.5 million free-agent deal with the New York Jets last offseason was met with little fanfare. We considered putting Humphrey atop the list of the best slot cornerbacks in the NFL, given that he has spent the majority of his snaps lined up in the slot over the past two seasons filling the void left by an injured Tavon Young. His value is easy to see. Yet, with Quandre Diggs coming off a year in which he conceded a disappointing 13.82 burn yards per target, this is a group with more questions than answers. Most tackles since 2015:1. Green, who posted a 90.3 coverage grade across his 116 coverage snaps. 2022 season/2023 NFL Draft outlook. These rankings are solely analyzing the performance and impact of every secondary in the NFL from the 2021 regular season. That larger role didnt lead to less impressive coverage numbers. NFL defenses will ask very different things of their cornerbacks, depending on the scheme they run. The Rams' pass-defense unit regressed some from 2020, but make no mistake: This is still an above-average group. . Two free-agent signings, in particular , The Raiders entered 2021 on a streak of arguably the worst defensive back play in the entire NFL. This season, the division is up for grabs yet again. Ya-Sin made his best plays on his few snaps in press-man, while Rodgers' top moments came in off-zone when racking up stops. The strength of this group comes from two former Washington Huskies. His goal is not to make it so a quarterback doesnt want to throw the ball his way. He grew up in . Howards 2020 performance put that playmaking ability on full display, with double-digit pass breakups and interceptions to go along with an 89.6 coverage grade. Justin Simmons was the best defender in the NFL in terms of adjusted open percentage in 2020, leading the way by allowing pass-catchers to get open against his coverage just 14.99% of the time. Wards dominance in single coverage (96th percentile grade since 2018) has been particularly noteworthy. The only outside cornerbacks to allow fewer yards per coverage snap than Dean (0.8) on at least 600 coverage snaps since the start of the 2019 season are Richard Sherman (0.4) and Jalen Ramsey (0.8). After being charged with eight receptions allowed in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys, Ramsey proceeded to allow just 24 receptions over the remainder of the regular season, giving upfewer than 25 receiving yards in 11 games. 25. Kenny Moore II, Indianapolis Colts13. With the start of the 2021 NFL regular season just around the corner, NFL.com analyst and former scout Daniel Jeremiah projects the best- and . The 49ers brought in veteran Josh Norman out of necessity at the start of the season, and it didnt go well. 8 forced fumbles in 2020. Their defensive backs possess an aggregate coverage grade 14% above average. Safety Jayron Kearse was the highest-graded defensive back on the roster, due in large part to his strong tackling. At his advancing age, two underwhelming seasons in a row would be a strong signal to sell him in these cornerback rankings moving forward. No cornerback in the league has been more productive on passes 20 or more yards downfield over that span. / by Eric Mullin. The Packers still fielded a top-10-graded cornerback room this season despite losing one of the best cover corners in the game for most of the season. That mark was also good for fourth-best at the position in the 2021 regular season. The Rams may have lost key pieces in the secondary in the form of safety John Johnson and cornerback Troy Hill but, even with the departure of defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, moving the ball on Los Angeles through the air will be an imposing challenge in 2021. Byron Murphy, Arizona Cardinals12. The most impressive part is that it all comes in a man-heavy Baltimore defense few cornerbacks in the league possess that kind of ability. Cornerback was a major area of concern for the Cardinals. Darious Williams, Los Angeles Rams If that happens and J.C. Jackson progresses, they could solidify themselves with a gold medal there. After trading Matthew Stafford in 2021 and T.J. Hockenson at the trade deadline last year, the Lions have five picks in the top 81 selections of this year's NFL Draft, including picks No. 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. Greg Newsome, Cleveland Browns, 26. Mahomes is king again at age 25 and may not be dethroned for a long time. 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. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. Episode 2 of the "Top 100 Players of 2022" aired on Sunday, with three cornerbacks making the list between Nos. The Broncos' secondary underwhelmed to a certain extent in 2021, with veteran safety Kareem Jackson and cornerback free agent pickups Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby all producing poor coverage grades below 60.0. While Gang Green endured a turbulent 2019, Poole was one of the team's top performers week in and week out. Ramsey is a freak, and on top of it all, hes so good against the run that his late-career safety transition will probably end in an All-Pro berth or two. Jones allowed 1.4 yards per coverage snap with Miami in 2020 double his 0.7 yards per coverage snap average across the 2018 and 2019 seasons in Dallas. So, which secondaries were a boon and which were a hindrance this season? Waynes three-year, $42 million contract was likely an overpay, but he does profile as a quality starting option. We use our own and third-party cookies to improve your experience and our services. Awuzie was the second-highest graded cornerback of the regular season, while Hilton was the seventh-highest graded slot corner in coverage. Still seems like we're waiting for the first domino to fall with the Bears . 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. Howard is one of the best playmaking cornerbacks that the NFL has to offer. Humphrey impacts the games in all the ways you want him to. The following are the 2022 NFL team overall defense statistics, including team rushing yardage, team passing yardage and total team yardage. Who looks to be a top-10 cornerback in the NFL right now? Cross, the former NFL defensive back who became the first Black man to work full-time as a sports analyst on national television, is the latest football player diagnosed with the brain disease CTE. Full Site Menu. Steven Nelson, Philadelphia Eagles Things got off to a rough start when the Lions lost 2020 No. "Mr. Cross was . Humphrey impacts the games in all the ways you want him to. He finished in the top 10 in yards per coverage snap on the outside (0.76), but five touchdowns allowed and eight penalties brought his coverage grade down to 59.5 for the year. While Tier 4 cornerbacks constantly compete for top-15 spots at the position and are average at worst, Tier 6 corners compete for top-30 spots and sometimes have below . He graded at 75.0 or higher in every season that he saw more than 100 snaps from 2012 through 2019, and he did it all while posting the highest forced incompletion rate in the NFL. 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