The secondary is the last unit remaining. Reed Jr. and safety Quandre Diggs were two of Seattle's bright spots. It shouldnt be a surprise that the group finished with one of the three-lowest unit coverage grades of the year. 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. Patrick Surtain II, Alabama. He also had 81 tackles, three sacks and seven tackles for loss. 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. 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. Fuller was back in Washington for the 2020 season following a two-year stint in Kansas City. 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. However, his return came at outside cornerback for the Football Team in 2020, where he put up impressive coverage numbers at his new position. 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. 3 overall pick on a defensive back like Derek Stingley Jr. (PFFs No. And star cornerback Jalen Ramsey is a huge reason why. Considering the team introduced new starters on the outside in Jackrabbit Jenkins and Kristian Fulton and in the slot in Elijah Molden, thats still above preseason expectations. 1 cornerback in the league heading into the 2020 season, fresh off a Defensive Player of the Year award in 2019. Fuller allowed just 53% of the passes into his coverage to be completed with four interceptions and nine pass breakups. Pittsburgh also went from second to 29th in passer rating allowed on deep targets year over year. Ramsey produced the highest coverage grade and most PFF WAR among all cornerbacks in the regular season. Who looks to be a top-10 cornerback in the NFL right now? 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. However, I prefer to look at this exercise as a nod of respect toward the top cornerbacks in the NFL for the 2021 season. NFL's Next Gen Stats captures real time location data, speed and acceleration for every player, every play on every inch of the field. 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. Unfortunately for Detroit, one of those corners is now on their roster. Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore Ravens. 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. Eagles: 4-11-1. Were taking a look at the best and worst units in football at each positional grouping. Five rosters still have more questions than answers, which makes these teams the worst the NFL has to offer as they prepare for the 2021 campaign. 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. Projections: Offensive rookies. 14. which is used by all 32 NFL teams we'll rank all 32 NFL secondaries from the 2021 regular season. The NFL in 2014 settled a class action lawsuit with retired . As the teams big free-agent acquisition at the position, Griffin does bring plenty of experience for a younger player. The Panthers get a physical and sticky man coverage cornerback who will be an interesting fit on an incredibly young defense. Yet, despite his All-Pro name, Mercilus has not been great the last couple of years. 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. After a broken-up pass against Wake Forest in 2016, he, . Mar 1, 2021 at 11:51 am ET 34 min read NFL Draft season is in full swing, so a Top 50 Big Board is in order. The real stars of this group are Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde, who rank second and third, respectively, in coverage grade among safeties. Minnesotas defensive backs rank 10th in aggregate coverage rating, performing 5% better than average. With that being said, here are four bold predictions for the New Orleans Saints in the 2023 NFL offseason. Henderson. (Gary Cosby Jr./. 4) New England Patriots: Stephon Gilmore & J.C. Jackson. 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. 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 PFF grade dropped from 90.0 from 2014 to 2018 in Detroit to just 59.5 across the last two years. Ranking the 11 worst plays of the 2021 NFL regular season. Hes 61, 210 pounds, and his spider chart might as well have been colored in by a nine-year-old. > 2021 NFL > Advanced Stats. Galina: The shortcomings of the Kellen Moore-Dak Prescott connection for the Dallas Cowboys 32. 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. 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. 10. Mahomes is king again at age 25 and may not be dethroned for a long time. The key to the Lions improving in that regard will be Jeff Okudahs ability to shake off a difficult rookie season and justify his status as the third overall pick in 2020. 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. Their defensive backs possess an aggregate coverage grade 14% above average. 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. 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). Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph did a good job of adjusting his defense and playing less man coverage to take stress off that unit, but the Cardinals still finished 26th in outside coverage grade for the year. The back-to-back AFC champions stood at a 2-3 record, and the secondary was performing at league-low levels. But his play has been up and down over that four-year stretch. The Rams' pass-defense unit regressed some from 2020, but make no mistake: This is still an above-average group. And there are a couple of surprise names feature among those secondaries who look ready to take a leap in 2021. Cowboys: 6-10. 12. 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. Shaquill Griffin, Jacksonville Jaguars If he can replicate that impact as a rookie, the Raiders should be in extremely good shape in the defensive backfield. Brian Poole (not re-signed) was the only cornerback to hold opponents to negative EPA per target in 2020. . I wouldnt have any issue calling White the best cornerback in football if Ramsey and Alexander didnt exist. Rookie Tyson Campbell was a reason for optimism, as he notched a couple of elite game grades above 90.0 in his last couple of months of action, but his inconsistent play was too severe for him to add considerable value to the secondary. * - denotes 2022 prospect. At his advancing age, two underwhelming seasons in a row would be a strong signal to sell him in these cornerback rankings moving forward. Still, the Saints defense was great last season and has continued to be so in 2021. 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 . 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. Personally, I want a guy who travels up and down the field on an assignment basis against the opposing teams best receivers. They ranked dead last in slot coverage grade following the regular season. Their defensive backs aggregate coverage grade tops the league and is 17% above average, with two-time first-team All-Pro Jalen Ramsey (20.45%) and the underrated Darious Williams (21.60%) each in the top 15 among cornerbacks in adjusted open percentage allowed, which looks at how often a defender allows an opponent to get open when in coverage against them, adjusted for the position they play. Fuller is set to be reunited with Vic Fangio in Denver. 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. Cornerback Trevon Diggs has been possibly the biggest boom-or-bust cornerback of the PFF era. Terrell was actually the second-highest graded cornerback in coverage in the 2021 regular season, behind only Jalen Ramsey. Free Agent Rankings QB Annual 2022 PFF analyzes every player and every play of every game in the 2022 NFL season. However, if White can keep up his torrent pace in 2021, he could easily elevate into the same conversation for CB1. No problem. 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). Led by Denzel Ward, Greedy Williams and rookie Greg Newsome II, the Browns' cornerback grade finished with the third-best coverage grade in the NFL. Butler had arguably his best season in coverage since his New England days last year with Tennessee. 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. They consistently ranked near the bottom of the league in every metric imaginable, including defensive back PFF WAR generated: 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. Ramsey has been one of the best cornerbacks in the league since Jacksonville drafted him fifth overall in the 2016 NFL Draft. No team covered the slot better in the 2021 regular season than the Patriots. Wards dominance in single coverage (96th percentile grade since 2018) has been particularly noteworthy. Pro Football Network, LLC. Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NFL player performance data. 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. As a result, Diggs' coverage grade rang in just above the 50th percentile among cornerbacks. Only one defensive back nickel cornerback Tavierre Thomas didnt produce a sub-60.0 coverage grade. We're ranking the division by position group. 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. He has been tested more than any other cornerback in the league since 2019, with a league-high 197 targets, but Davis has come out on top on a lot of those plays. Washington possessed one of the better defenses in the NFL in 2020;Jacksons addition should only improve it, giving them a No. Pro Football Focus graded rookie Sauce Gardner as the best corner in the NFL. I still expect a lot from Stephon Gilmore, and with those expectations will come quick criticism if he doesnt perform to his standards. And Peters ranks tied for fifth at the position in pass breakups (52) over that same time frame. 1 cornerbacks in the NFC South are tasked with. He gets to passes that most receivers cannot get to, making his multiple near-INTs in 2021 as impressive as his 7 actual interceptions. 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. 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. Heck, he played more snaps in the slot in 2020 than he did on the outside. 5. Since entering the league in 2016, 18.7% of his targets in coverage have resulted in a pass breakup or interception, leadingall cornerbacks who have been targeted at least 150 times over those five years. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports) Listen . He allowed a mere 0.46 yards per coverage snap and 3.1 yards per target in that span, both of which ranked second among cornerbacks. He battled injuries early in the season, which didnt help in the adjustment to a man-heavy coverage scheme under Brian Flores. PFF's exclusive metrics provide Cornerback (CB) position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Buffalos offense carried the load last season as the Bills progressed to the AFC Championship Game, though the talent in the secondary is such that they can afford to have confidence in putting more of the burden on their pass coverage in 2021. Which teams have the best -- and worst -- running back units? For the most part, the Buffalo Bills invest wisely in the right people and positions. 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. Since 2019, Marlon Humphreys done exactly that in Wink Martindales aggressive man-to-man scheme. The top cornerback room? His -37.2 EPA when targeted is twice as productive as any other defender in the league. He ranks in the 80th percentile of qualifying cornerbacks in forced incompletion rate and the 70th percentile in coverage grade while in single coverage since entering the league in 2014. 6 on the list, as his 86.2 coverage . Jones allowed 1.4 yards per coverage snap . . Jaire Alexander is responsible for my favorite troll of all time on a football field. Things got off to a rough start when the Lions lost 2020 No. Two free-agent signings, in particular Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton have helped them get there. Verrett exceeded all expectations in his return from a string of injuries last season for San Francisco. He remains among the league leaders in targets, and with that comes the yards. Griffin has earned overall grades of 50.7, 78.0 and 64.6 in the past three seasons. Quarterback Josh Allen, cornerback Tre'Davious White, wide receiver . From Week 12 to the end of the regular season, he was one of the 10 highest-graded cornerbacks in the NFL. 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. He has picked up coverage grades between 70.4 and 72.4 every season, gradually increasing his playing time each year. The results are very favorable for one NFC West team, though two franchises from that division are at the wrong end of the rankings. 20. His 45.3 coverage grade was the fourth-lowest among qualifying cornerbacks. 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. Slay came in at No. 11. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. name season tm gp tkl ast comb sck scky int int yds int td ff fr fr td; jahleel addae: 2021 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. 247Sports Composite. However, with a full offseason under their belt to coalesce further, the arrow is pointing up for a young and clearly talented secondary that will again be playing behind one of the best front sevens in football after the Bucs kept the band together for another run in 2021. With some personnel tweaks, the Chiefs secondary revived itself. Feb. 28 (UPI) --Former NFL star cornerback Irv Cross, who died in 2021, was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, Boston University researchers announced Tuesday. TreDavious White has been one of the top cornerbacks in the league since the minute he stepped on an NFL field. 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. 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. Despite that, the Buccaneers outside cornerbacks still combined for the highest unit coverage grade in the NFL. They made a league-leading 23 plays on the ball from the slot en route to allowing the lowest passer rating (71.1). It hasnt taken Alexander very long to establish himself as one of the leagues best coverage cornerbacks. The presence of Breeland, who is expected to compete with Dantzler for a starting job, and Peterson gives the Vikings strong depth at corner and should mitigate the potential loss of 2020 first-round pick Jeff Gladney, whose future is in doubt amid off-field troubles. 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. Carlton Davis III was less impressive, giving up a burn on exactly half of his 92 targets, though the fact he conceded a big play on 25% of his targets (the average was 26 among all corners) leaves room for encouragement. The Jets might have the best group of cornerbacks in the NFL a far cry from 2021, when they might have had the worst. Houston might want to think about using its No. Terrell has flashed the ability to become one of the truly . Slot coverage grade and most PFF WAR among all cornerbacks in the NFL since! 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