Discover Next Gen Stats News, Charts, and Statistics. When hes been asked to man up against some of the best receivers in the NFL, hes delivered. 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. His 3.2% missed tackle rate was the second-lowest among safeties. Only one defensive back nickel cornerback Tavierre Thomas didnt produce a sub-60.0 coverage grade. Which teams have the best -- and worst -- running back units? 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. Yet, between Mullens progress, the arrival of Hayward and the selection of free safety Trevon Moehrig in the second round of this years draft, the Raiders secondary is one that looks primed to establish itself as one of the better groups in the NFL. Only three Power 5 defenders gave up fewer. NFL quarterback rankings 2021. However, his return came at outside cornerback for the Football Team in 2020, where he put up impressive coverage numbers at his new position. As I said in last week's Schein Nine, NFL offenses are more creative and dynamic than ever before. From Week 7 on, he was one of the 25 highest-graded players at the position and allowed more than 60 yards in coverage just once this season. Cowboys: 6-10. Bradberry put up solid performances against a difficult slate of NFC South cornerbacks across the first four seasons of his career with the Carolina Panthers, but he took a clear step forward in his first year with the Giants last season. 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. He wasnt alone out there, either safety Marcus Williams also helped anchor the group with an 84.3 coverage grade that ranked seventh at the position. I simply wont acknowledge any Jalen Ramsey disrespect in this dojo. Davis and Dean form one of the best cornerback pairings in the NFL. Subscribe to PFF+ to unlock . All Rights Reserved. . Mahomes is king again at age 25 and may not be dethroned for a long time. The Lions have done a disappointing job of drafting and developing talent under previous regimes. 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. . The slot was also a considerable issue all year long, as Chicago produced the sixth-worst coverage grade at the position this season. Galina: The shortcomings of the Kellen Moore-Dak Prescott connection for the Dallas Cowboys Personally, I want a guy who travels up and down the field on an assignment basis against the opposing teams best receivers. 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. 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. David Carr constructs his own ranking of the top 10 cornerbacks, but All-Pro . 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. 18. The lack of talent and experience was apparent, especially without safety Marcus Maye, who ruptured his Achilles midway through the season. Rookie Patrick Surtain II also showed a lot of promise and looks like a star in the making. Cornerback Charvarius Ward was also playing exceptionally better after missing a month due to injury. However, he was overly aggressive at times and susceptible to giving up the big play. Unfortunately for Detroit, one of those corners is now on their roster. 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. Howard has struggled so far in 2021, but the same can be said for the entire Dolphins defense. Jackson burst onto the scene with a 90.4 coverage grade in his first season of action back in 2017. I wouldnt have any issue calling White the best cornerback in football if Ramsey and Alexander didnt exist. 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. Were taking a look at the best and worst units in football at each positional grouping. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. No group of cornerbacks played more man coverage than the Miami Dolphins. 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. 2021 NFL Defensive Secondary Rankings, by Unit 32. 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. Ya-Sin's 2020 coverage grade was over 20 points lower than his 2021 mark, and Rodgers played just 38 NFL coverage snaps entering the season, so this wasnt expected. The amount of top-level play from NFL cornerbacks is astonishing. His goal is not to make it so a quarterback doesnt want to throw the ball his way. His PFF grade dropped from 90.0 from 2014 to 2018 in Detroit to just 59.5 across the last two years. His 71.5 overall grade in 2020 was his highest single-season mark since back in 2017 with the Broncos. His 84.6 PFF grade finished as the third-best at the position. 30. 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. 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. But his play has been up and down over that four-year stretch. Tennessees loss has turned into the Giants gain. His addition, along with the signing of Joe Haden, helped stabilize a turbulent cornerback position in Pittsburgh over these last two seasons. 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. That mark was also good for fourth-best at the position in the 2021 regular season. 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. Giants: 6-10. Slay came in at No. 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. The Vikings invested heavily in the secondary in recent years and the numbers suggest that decision could pay dividends in the coming season. 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. Its impossible to discuss what Peters brings to the table and not start with his knack for getting his hands on the football, as his 31 interceptions since entering the league in 2015 are nine more than any other cornerback. But two underrated additions could see them catapult into the top five. 1. Prior to landing his big-money extension in 2020, not many truly understood White's value to . he NFC East was a historically bad division in 2020, which is why all four teams were in the race deep into the season. Rhodes will look to continue to build on that success on another one-year deal with the team in 2021. Top 32 cornerbacks in the NFL for the 2021 season | 1-10. In the News: Patrick Mahomes, Derek Carr, Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, Tom Brady, Brock Purdy. 8 forced fumbles in 2020. No, he was targeted often because of who was on the opposite side, and his ball skills shined in the process, recording 10 INTs in 2020. Dean expanded his role in the Buccaneers defense from fewer than 400 snaps in 2019 to 935 defensive snaps this past season. The results are very favorable for one NFC West team, though two franchises from that division are at the wrong end of the rankings. 2022 NFL Cornerback Rankings. Pro Football Network strives to passionately deliver purposeful, captivating, and exceptional football content. 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. From Week 7 on, Ward allowed more than 50 yards in coverage just once. 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. The steady veteran presence that he should bring will be important for a secondary that will likely start two cornerbacks under the age of 24 alongside him. NAME GP TKL AST COMB SCK SCKY INT INT YDS INT TD FF FR FR TD; Tom Farris: 11: 4: 43: 0: 1: 0: Steve Filipowicz Pair that with three top-25-graded safeties , No team covered the slot better in the 2021 regular season than the Patriots. Its part of what makes identifying the leagues best at the position so challenging. . So this is one of the worst cornerback trios in the NFL, not just the NFC West. Green allowed only six receptions for 70 yards on 22 targets while breaking up five and picking off one. 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. 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