Opposing quarterbacks netted a 71.8 passer rating when throwing at one of Clevelands outside cornerbacks this season, the lowest among the 32 defenses. Receivers started getting smaller and more shifty. If Ramsey is the freak, Alexander is the new mold. In a pass-heavy league, the cornerback position has grown into one of the most important positions on the football field. We rank all 32 teams in 10 different position groups, plus we offer an overall roster outlook. Theres a reason he has received plenty of interest since his release. 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. Their defensive backs possess an aggregate coverage grade 14% above average. But certain units . 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. Building a high-powered offense is a sustainable way to win in the NFL, but ensuring the defensive secondary isnt a liability is what separates the contenders from the rest. Ask any executive or coach around the league at this To further my point, Matthew Staffords EPA is 39, and hes an MVP candidate at quarterback. Williams is Denver's long-term answer at running back . None of their cornerbacks had a quality campaign, but. 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. Kendall Fuller, Washington Football Team 28. The Pro Bowl free safety will have an exciting mix of experience and youth alongside him. 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. None of their cornerbacks had a quality campaign, but Bashaud Breeland who was waived in mid-December was the main reason for the outside struggles. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. The Eagles now have one of the NFL's most talented cornerback trios, with both Bradyberry and Slay making PFF's top 32 cornerbacks list. / by Eric Mullin. Marcus Peters, Baltimore Ravens Devon Witherspoon is a player who has had the best production throughout 2022 and has been simply elite while . 2020 Yards-Allowed Rank: No. Defensive rookies. If he can do this for 17 games, even if the interceptions evade him, itll be tough to argue theres a better cornerback in the league. 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. It shouldnt come as a shock if he wins that starting job and rebounds from a down 2020 season. Not a single one of Dallas' top eight defensive backs by snaps earned a coverage grade in poor territory below 60.0. While it wasn't easy putting together this list, here is our ranking of the NFL's 10 best cornerbacks in 2022. 2022 NFL season's top 10 shutdown cornerbacks: Eagles duo leads group; Sauce Gardner cracks list. The 2023 corner class doesn't hold any superstars like last year's Sauce Gardner but it still has a number of quality pro prospects with five having close to first-round grades on them. Still seems like we're waiting for the first domino to fall with the Bears . Cornerback Trevon Diggs has been possibly the biggest boom-or-bust cornerback of the PFF era. More progress from that duo could lessen the impact of Johnsons exit but, following highly rated defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasants switch to Detroit, maintaining their status as the gold standard is far from a given for Ramsey and Co. in 2021. The Detroit Lions were, by most metrics, the worst defensive team in the NFL last year and they probably won't be much better . The Raiders entered 2021 on a streak of arguably the worst defensive back play in the entire NFL. Las Vegas Raiders . A.J. Still, they held up well, ranking sixth in coverage grade and second in EPA per pass play allowed on such plays. Wards dominance in single coverage (96th percentile grade since 2018) has been particularly noteworthy. Ex-NFL cornerback Irv Cross, who died in 2021 years after being diagnosed with dementia, had Stage 4 CTE after nearly a decade of playing in the NFL, researchers said Tuesday > 2021 NFL > Advanced Stats. Green, who posted a 90.3 coverage grade across his 116 coverage snaps. 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. The 2014 first-round pick looked like an ascending star with a 90.9 coverage grade in his second year in the NFL, but he managed to take the field for just over 300 total snaps the following four seasons combined. Slot corner Mackensie Alexanders down season didnt help matters, either. Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NFL player performance data. The secondary is the last unit remaining. It was only natural that the prototype for cornerback shifted as well. Obviously, this is a subjective endeavor, and we could argue for days about the names that are too high or too low. While Gang Green endured a turbulent 2019, Poole was one of the team's top performers week in and week out. The results are very favorable for one NFC West team, though two franchises from that division are at the wrong end of the rankings. The top cornerbacks for 2022 are all established stars who are all playing some of the best football of their careers. NFL Player Grades. To look exclusively at the secondary, the results for defenders who spend their playing time almost exclusively in the box have been filtered out. Teams are afraid to throw at Surtain, and he has one of the lowest target totals among . 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. Nelson was another surprise release by a team strapped for salary cap space. In 2017, Slay led the league in interceptions and . Opposite him for most of the season was Kindle Vildor, who posted a 45.6 coverage grade that ranked in the bottom five in the NFL. Gilmore was comfortably the No. 1. . After a broken-up pass against Wake Forest in 2016, he, . He also had 81 tackles, three sacks and seven tackles for loss. That mark was also good for fourth-best at the position in the 2021 regular season. Butler has been one of the best in the league at getting his hands on the football throughout his career. James Bradberry, New York Giants, 21. 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. Nickel Byron Murphys burn yards per target average of 7.50 was the fifth-best among inside corners in 2020 and Budda Baker has established himself as one of the premier safeties in the NFL, with his adjusted open percentage of 16.38 trailing only three defenders last season. Sign up and be the first to receive exclusive stats, news, and updates from the Analyst. 1. We often bring up the difficult coverage assignments that No. Since 2019, Marlon Humphreys done exactly that in Wink Martindales aggressive man-to-man scheme. Rankings&Projections |WR/CB Matchup Chart |NFL & NCAA Betting Dashboards | NFL Player Props Tool | NFL & NCAA Power Rankings 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. Jun 5, 2021 5:19 PM EDT. 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. 23. The only member of the Detroit Lions on our initial 2022 NFL top 100 players list, Frank Ragnow missed a majority of the 2021 season with a turf toe. The Panthers' outside coverage, in particular, was the weakest link. he 2021 NFL regular season is over. 6 and . Donte Jackson, Carolina Panthers Pittsburgh also went from second to 29th in passer rating allowed on deep targets year over year. 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. Full Site Menu. Asante Samuel Jr. showed some positive play at times this season, with seven pass breakups and two interceptions, but he still finished with a triple-digit passer rating allowed en route to being the 11th-most valuable rookie corner. Figures indicate statistics each team allowed to their opponents. While the group combined for the sixth-most interceptions (14) among the 32 secondaries, it also allowed a successful play at a bottom-five rate. It doesnt matter where Ramsey is at, though hes been a top-tier player at either position. 32. 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. Hes a wide receiver baiting quarterbacks into throwing passes that he can jump. A strong work out at LSU's pro day on April 6th could help to turn around his draft stock. Mackenzie Alexanders return after a year with the Cincinnati Bengals may see him start at nickel, and he will need to improve after allowing 11.16 burn yards per target from the slot last season. On the bright side, Emmanuel Moseley played admirably with a 17.6% forced incompletion rate on the outside (ninth) and under a yard allowed per coverage snap this regular season. 25. Kendall Fuller was one of the three most valuable cornerbacks of the 2021 season and helped a great deal in Washington ranking even this high. With the help of PFFs advanced database which is used by all 32 NFL teams we'll rank all 32 NFL secondaries from the 2021 regular season. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. 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. Buffalos secondary endured a crushing blow in Week 12 when CB1 TreDavious White went down with a season-ending torn ACL. Nelson ranks among the top 10 cornerbacks in the league in both completion rate allowed (53.9%) and passer rating allowed (75.1) among 68 players at the position to see at least 100 targets since 2019. However, their defensive backfield is only 15th in aggregate coverage rating, coming in 3% better than average. Injuries held him to just over 300 snaps for San Francisco last season, but Sherman was the highest-graded cornerback in the league (90.3 overall) back in 2019. Yet, despite praise for Antoine Winfield Jrs rookie year, both he and fellow starting safety Jordan Whitehead will hope to make improvements in coverage, having given up 11.33 and 12.32 burn yards per target, respectively. The Cardinals are under pressure to produce a playoff campaign in the third year of Kliff Kingsbury as head coach and Kyler Murray as quarterback and a look at their depth chart in the secondary indicates the offense may have to carry this team to a first postseason appearance since the 2015 campaign. Nickel Ronald Darby (37.8) and free-agent signing Kyle Fuller (40.3), inexplicably released by the Chicago Bears, each ranked in the top seven in burn percentage allowed for corners with at least 200 coverage snaps. And he only got better as the season progressed. Opposing offenses simply werent able to attack him in coverage. Instead, hes heading in the wrong direction. Contract: three years, $18.6 million. And yet, the Bills still 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. Nonetheless, this year's class doesn't boast a marquee, Denzel Ward or Jalen Ramsey type bound to land inside the top five. From Week 7 on, he was one of the 25 highest-graded cornerbacks in the NFL. . Howard is one of the best playmaking cornerbacks that the NFL has to offer. He should give the Broncos some playmaking ability at cornerback if he can stay healthy. Terrell locked up his opponents on a weekly basis, allowing no more than 32 yards in a single game this year. Giants: 6-10. The lack of talent and experience was apparent, especially without safety, Houstons fielded the lowest-graded secondary in the NFL by a whopping eight grading points. Heck, he played more snaps in the slot in 2020 than he did on the outside. 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. Copyright 2019-2023. 16 ranking despite the team's poor state overall. The Raiders defensive backs rank seventh for aggregate coverage, rating 10% better than the average. Jackson burst onto the scene with a 90.4 coverage grade in his first season of action back in 2017. Jones was the NFL's highest-paid cornerback when he signed a five-year, $82.5 . He should once again be put in a position to succeed under Fangio next season. 2021 stats: 11 games (11 starts), 1 INT, 6 PBUs, 1 FF, 1 FR, 0.5 sacks, 41 combined tackles (27 solo). A cause for concern may come across from White after a mediocre year for Levi Wallace, whose adjusted open percentage (30.85) was close to double that of White, but the Bills have to be impressed by the progress of nickel Taron Johnson, who allowed a big play on only 14 of his 74 targets at inside corner last year. 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. The official start of NFL free agency doesn't begin until March 13. This group should contend for the top spot next season. 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. This week, were evaluating defensive backs. With that said, here are my cornerback rankings for the 2022 NFL draft: 1. Meanwhile, McKinney ranked in the top 10 in coverage grade among safeties. Even with the big plays allowed early in the season, quarterbacks have just a 68.1 rating when targeting Lattimore this season. Home About Shop . Detroits defensive backs aggregate coverage grade is 27% below average. Casey Hayward, Las Vegas Raiders Browns honorable mention busts: Courtney Brown, (2000, first overall pick), Trent Richardson (2012, third overall pick) 8. T.J. Green has played because of . Seattle Seahawks: Ahkello Witherspoon, D.J. Tre Flowers open percentage of 85.7 was the fifth-worst of all corners in the NFL, though the play of another former Niner, D.J. Having added Fuller and the most pro-ready corner in the draft, the Broncos secondary could soon mount a challenge to take the crown from the Rams. Consequently, defenses are more stressed than ever before. With more than 20 pending free agents, the front office will have a lot of work to do. The newly minted Super Bowl champion is not only the top cornerback in the NFL, but also one of the best football players, period . The back-to-back AFC champions stood at a 2-3 record, and the secondary was performing at league-low levels. 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