32. No team lost more WAR due to injuries this season than Baltimore. Copyright 2019-2023. He ended up allowing 0.37 yards per coverage snap the third-lowest figure in the PFF era behind only Asante Samuel in 2019 and Nnamdi Asomugha in 2008 (0.36 each). Fuller allowed just 53% of the passes into his coverage to be completed with four interceptions and nine pass breakups. His 3.2% missed tackle rate was the second-lowest among safeties. But certain units . 4) Patrick Surtain II, Denver Broncos. T. Washington: 7-9. He grew up in . 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. 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. With more than 20 pending free agents, the front office will have a lot of work to do. Jackson was one of the five highest-graded outside cornerbacks in the NFL and allowed the second-fewest yards per coverage snap at the position. 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. Kendall Fuller, Washington Football Team As the teams big free-agent acquisition at the position, Griffin does bring plenty of experience for a younger player. Fuller is set to be reunited with Vic Fangio in Denver. TreDavious Whites continuing success is a reason for that, as the two-time Pro Bowler first among all cornerbacks in adjusted open percentage allowed (16.20%) in 2020. The Panthers get a physical and sticky man coverage cornerback who will be an interesting fit on an incredibly young defense. 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. It shouldnt be a surprise that the group finished with one of the three-lowest unit coverage grades of the year. 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. via Seth Galina. Theyre simply on a tier of their own for the time being. The league's inaugural 17-game season . There is a massive amount of talent currently at the position. But his play has been up and down over that four-year stretch. See trending; Company. Strong safety Kareem Jackson was ninth among all players at the position in burn yards per target allowed with 7.76. Terrell locked up his opponents on a weekly basis, allowing no more than 32 yards in a single game this year. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. 18. 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. Williams career trajectory is very similar to Dean's in that he graded exceptionally well in a limited role in 2019 and didnt take any sort of step back in a full-time starting job this past season. Bears. His lone interception was a career-worst -- as was his tally of 50 combined tackles and 66.2 completion percentage allowed -- but with a full training camp to come (after having been absent a traditional one in 2020 due to the COVID-19 . 2021 NFL Defensive Secondary Rankings, by Unit 32. Hes one of the more impactful free agents still on the market. Ive already written my story on Trevon Diggs. 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. 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. It hasnt taken Alexander very long to establish himself as one of the leagues best coverage cornerbacks. He has been one of the best run defenders (88.5 run-defense grade in five seasons with the Vikings) at the position since entering the league in 2015. NAME SEASON TM GP TKL AST COMB SCK SCKY INT INT YDS INT TD FF FR FR TD; Jahleel Addae: 2021: IND. Jenkins was part of the facelift at the cornerback position for Tennessee this offseason, replacing Malcolm Butler and Adoree Jackson with Jenkins and first-round pick Caleb Farley. Reed and Tre . Using advanced data, weve ranked every secondary in the NFL by their performance in pass coverage. After a few poorly graded games in the first quarter of the season, the first-round pick stepped up and was a legitimate CB1 for Denver. There is a massive amount of talent currently at the position. The Pro Bowl free safety will have an exciting mix of experience and youth alongside him. * - denotes 2022 prospect. No problem. 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. Projected starter Amani Oruwariye (36.9) did not fare much better, and it would be no surprise to see rookie Ifeatu Melifonwu thrust into a prominent role early in his career. It shouldnt come as a shock if he wins that starting job and rebounds from a down 2020 season. 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. 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. Pittsburgh also went from second to 29th in passer rating allowed on deep targets year over year. Safety, The Rams' pass-defense unit regressed some from 2020, but make no mistake: This is still an above-average group. Slay came in at No. When hes been asked to man up against some of the best receivers in the NFL, hes delivered. Darius Big Play Slay played a big part in the Eagles cracking a spot in the top half of the league. Terrell has flashed the ability to become one of the truly . Adoree Jackson, New York Giants Eric Kendricks 639 # . David Carr constructs his own ranking of the top 10 cornerbacks, but All-Pro . Bryce Callahan, Denver Broncos His value is easy to see. targeted, which leads to his interceptions. Moehrig allowed a big play on 20.3% of his targets in 2020, giving them up at the sixth-fewest rate of all Power 5 safeties with at least 25 targets. T. The Las Vegas Raiders took down the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football in an overtime thriller, bringing an end to the 18-week marathon to the postseason. 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. Its too early to say Gilmore cant get back to that level, though. William Jackson III, Washington Football Team Quarterback Josh Allen, cornerback Tre'Davious White, wide receiver . He plays so he. Henderson. Bryce Hall, New York Jets, XFL Fantasy Football Rankings Week 2: Josh Gordon, Jeff Badet, Max Borghi, and More, Final Fantasy PPR Rankings for the NFL Playoffs: Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott, James Cook, and More, NFL All-Time RB Records: Season and Career Leaders, College football Week 6 live reactions, results, and takeaways. Obviously, this is a subjective endeavor, and we could argue for days about the names that are too high or too low. He should once again be put in a position to succeed under Fangio next season. Patrick Surtain II, Alabama. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. . The Bills defensive backs rank 15 points above the average in aggregate coverage grading. 9: 10: 5: 15: 0.0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: . . ** - denotes 2023 prospect. This is not a forward-looking list, nor is it considering what a group accomplished prior to this season. 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. Griffin has earned overall grades of 50.7, 78.0 and 64.6 in the past three seasons. 16 ranking despite the team's poor state overall. 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. Blake Martinez 6575. Houston might want to think about using its No. He allowed just 30 receiving yards on 359 coverage snaps across his final 11 games that season. 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. Not a single one of Dallas' top eight defensive backs by snaps earned a coverage grade in poor territory below 60.0. He gets his hands on passes left and right without getting himself so out of position that hes unable to recover. After profiling as one of the top cornerbacks in the league from 2014 to 2018, Slay has taken a noticeable step back the past two seasons. Even if the young Jaycee Horn hadnt gone down to injury, this would have been an outstanding move for the Panthers. With the help of. Jun 5, 2021 5:19 PM EDT. Slot corner Mackensie Alexanders down season didnt help matters, either. Outside corner J.C. Jackson was also one of the best at his respective position, earning a top-five PFF grade in the regular season. However, I prefer to look at this exercise as a nod of respect toward the top cornerbacks in the NFL for the 2021 season. That pairing will be joined by arguably the premier corner from this years draft class, Patrick Surtain II, who makes the step up to the league after a stellar college career with Alabama, which he ended by helping the Crimson Tide to a National Championship and allowing 0.93 burn yards per snap. His goal is not to make it so a quarterback doesnt want to throw the ball his way. Prior to landing his big-money extension in 2020, not many truly understood White's value to . The ability to limit production like Ramsey did against top-flight talent is invaluable for the Los Angeles Rams defense. he 2021 NFL regular season is over. 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 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. So this is one of the worst cornerback trios in the NFL, not just the NFC West. Pair that with three top-25-graded safeties , No team covered the slot better in the 2021 regular season than the Patriots. They will be looking for a step forward from last years third-round pick Cameron Dantzler, who was above average in burn yards per target (9.4) and open percentage allowed (62.3) as a rookie. With modern NFL rules, its a disadvantage not to have the type of foot speed Ward possesses. He was 10th in the NFL at his position in adjusted open percentage (21.58). Jamel Dean, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31. Its part of what makes identifying the leagues best at the position so challenging. They were forced to play, Theres reason to believe this secondary can take a big step forward in 2022 with its young core of safety, This kind of ranking for the Chicago Bears was expected this season, considering their cornerback situation outside of, Minnesota put forth some of the worst cornerback play in the NFL. Awuzie was the second-highest graded cornerback of the regular season, while Hilton was the seventh-highest graded slot corner in coverage. 3 Darius Slay Jr. - 93 OVR. With that said, here are my cornerback rankings for the 2022 NFL draft: 1. 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. Donte Jackson, Carolina Panthers CORNERBACK PROSPECT RANKING 2023 NFL DRAFT. Carlton Davis, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 16. 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. Ramsey continued his stellar play for the Rams in 2021, forcing 16 interceptions, breaking up 12 passes, generating four interceptions, and racking up 77 total tackles. The secondary is the last unit remaining. 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. Who looks to be a top-10 cornerback in the NFL right now? Hes a wide receiver baiting quarterbacks into throwing passes that he can jump. We're ranking the division by position group. Taron Johnson, Buffalo Bills Fuller was back in Washington for the 2020 season following a two-year stint in Kansas City. Butler has been one of the best in the league at getting his hands on the football throughout his career. 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. And there are a couple of surprise names feature among those secondaries who look ready to take a leap in 2021. While Gang Green endured a turbulent 2019, Poole was one of the team's top performers week in and week out. The top cornerback room? 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. Melifonwu was tied for ninth in the fewest burn yards per snap (1.23) allowed among Power 5 corners in his final season with Syracuse. Receivers started getting smaller and more shifty. 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