. Still, they held up well, ranking sixth in coverage grade and second in EPA per pass play allowed on such plays. 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. In a pass-heavy league, the cornerback position has grown into one of the most important positions on the football field. Discover Next Gen Stats News, Charts, and Statistics. 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. The 49ers brought in veteran Josh Norman out of necessity at the start of the season, and it didnt go well. Which team has the most wins as road dogs since 2015? 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. 32. . 11. And he only got better as the season progressed. He gets to passes that most receivers cannot get to, making his multiple near-INTs in 2021 as impressive as his 7 actual interceptions. Both players were among the 15 most valuable players at their respective positions, according to PFF WAR. 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. Jaylon Johnson, Chicago Bears Rhodes will look to continue to build on that success on another one-year deal with the team in 2021. Here is the fourth version of our Vikings 2023 Mock Draft Tracker, which features 16 recent predictions from around the world of . 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. Nik Needham was an underrated player among the group by producing a top-10 slot coverage grade in the NFL. 2021 NFL Defensive Secondary Rankings, by Unit 32. who passed away in February 2021 at age 81, played cornerback for the Eagles from 1961 to 1965, earning two Pro Bowl nods, and . Still, the Saints defense was great last season and has continued to be so in 2021. His goal is not to make it so a quarterback doesnt want to throw the ball his way. 27. > 2021 NFL > Advanced Stats. Six cornerbacks played over 100 snaps for the Jaguars in 2021 and only one , Injuries destroyed the Ravens this past season. 2021 stats: 11 games (11 starts), 1 INT, 6 PBUs, 1 FF, 1 FR, 0.5 sacks, 41 combined tackles (27 solo). Jaire Alexander is responsible for my favorite troll of all time on a football field. By continuing and using the site, including by remaining on the landing . but it was his worst season from a production allowed standpoint since making the switch to cornerback in 2018. This kind of ranking for the Chicago Bears was expected this season, considering their cornerback situation outside of Jaylon Johnson. Overall, New York allowed more EPA per pass than any other defense in the regular season. We're ranking the division by position group. 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. 12. The secondary finished 26th in unit coverage grade and ranked in the bottom 10 in passer rating, yards per attempt and separation allowed when the quarterback threw from a clean pocket. Awuzie was the second-highest graded cornerback of the regular season, while Hilton was the seventh-highest graded slot corner in coverage. 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. No team lost more WAR due to injuries this season than Baltimore. The Bengals' pass coverage finished the regular season as the seventh-most improved group year over year in terms of EPA allowed per pass. While Surtain will go early in the 2021 NFL Draft, he is not as good of a prospect as Jalen Ramsey or C.J. Still, they held up well, ranking sixth in coverage grade and second in EPA per pass play allowed on such plays. Their team slot coverage grade ended up multiple grading points higher than any other NFL franchise. Ward and Newsome, in particular, produced top-10 coverage grades when in single coverage. Those three cornerbacks shared a combined 17 years of experience in the NFL. Cornerback Trevon Diggs has been possibly the biggest boom-or-bust cornerback of the PFF era. 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. Safeties Harrison Smith (13.13) and Xavier Woods (16.33 at free safety) also struggled in that metric in 2020 but the pressure will be taken off that pair should their top three corners live up to expectations. Wards dominance in single coverage (96th percentile grade since 2018) has been particularly noteworthy. Hes a wide receiver baiting quarterbacks into throwing passes that he can jump. Cornerback Adoree Jackson and safety Xavier McKinney helped claw this secondary to a No. Hes one of the more impactful free agents still on the market. 1. 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. It just wasnt all there for him in 2020. he 2021 NFL regular season is over. Opposing quarterbacks netted a 71.8 passer rating when throwing at one of Clevelands outside cornerbacks this season, the lowest among the 32 defenses. Quarterback Josh Allen, cornerback Tre'Davious White, wide receiver . 30. What do you want out of your elite cornerback? 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. The Panthers get a physical and sticky man coverage cornerback who will be an interesting fit on an incredibly young defense. He remains among the league leaders in targets, and with that comes the yards. The NFL's top 11 safeties. Haden may be on the downward slope of his career, but he has provided Pittsburgh with steady play at cornerback since joining the team in 2018 and should continue to do so in 2021. The amount of top-level play from NFL cornerbacks is astonishing. 11. The Patriots will look for that bounce-back season in 2021. Defensive rookies. There is a massive amount of talent currently at the position. 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 Eagles aren't the best NFC East team on paper. Above-average press man cornerback with NFL bloodlines and a well-rounded but not spectacular all-around game. KEY: Gms = Games Played, Tot Pts = Total Points Scored, Pts/G = Points Per Game, RushYds = Rushing Yards, RYds/G = Rushing Yards Per Game . 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. A strong work out at LSU's pro day on April 6th could help to turn around his draft stock. With that being said, here are four bold predictions for the New Orleans Saints in the 2023 NFL offseason. But with Horn getting shut down after a Week 3 injury and Henderson struggling to get acclimated after getting traded to the team a month into the season, it was a subpar year for the secondary. Theres a reason he has received plenty of interest since his release. Veteran Casey Hayward Jr. who played in Bradley's scheme with the Los Angeles Chargers was the 13th-highest graded outside corner of the regular season, while rookie Nate Hobbs was the highest-graded slot corner. Green, who posted a 90.3 coverage grade across his 116 coverage snaps. He earned a 47.4 coverage grade for the regular season while also allowing a 125.0 passer rating when targeted and being called for 10 penalties. Humphrey impacts the games in all the ways you want him to. 18. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. Okudah allowed the offense to gain +1.0 EPA on 43.2 percent of his targets in coverage, the worst rate in the league . Thats a tip of the cap to everyone in the secondary for stepping up, including 2020 seventh-rounder, Tampa Bay dealt with a pile of injuries and COVID-19 in their cornerback room for most of the season, forcing the team to cycle through players. (Gary Cosby Jr./. Marcus Peters, Baltimore Ravens The three highest PFF grades of Fuller's career came with Fangio as the defensive coordinator in Chicago from 2015 to 2018. Two free-agent signings, in particular Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton have helped them get there. If that happens and J.C. Jackson progresses, they could solidify themselves with a gold medal there. While Gang Green endured a turbulent 2019, Poole was one of the team's top performers week in and week out. He ranks top 10 in both slot and outside coverage grade. And even he had a volatile season with a 60.5 coverage grade. 1 cornerbacks in the NFC South are tasked with. 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 unfortunate hes not more widely regarded as a ballhawk, but many cant look past the paltry INT numbers to his league-high 8 forced fumbles in 2020. 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. His 19.1% forced incompletion rate was a top-five mark at the cornerback position last year, tied with Jaire Alexander. With some personnel tweaks, the Chiefs secondary revived itself. 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. Kendall Fuller, Washington Football Team . He battled injuries early in the season, which didnt help in the adjustment to a man-heavy coverage scheme under Brian Flores. These rankings are solely analyzing the performance and impact of every secondary in the NFL from the 2021 regular season. Outside corner, Opposing quarterbacks netted a 71.8 passer rating when throwing at one of Clevelands outside cornerbacks this season, the lowest among the 32 defenses. 2022 NFL Cornerback Rankings. . 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. They made a league-leading 23 plays on the ball from the slot en route to allowing the lowest passer rating (71.1). 3 overall pick Jeffrey Okudah in Week 1 for the year with a ruptured Achilles. Veteran. He was 10th in the NFL at his position in adjusted open percentage (21.58). Dolphins cornerback Byron Jones has not played since the 2021 season. Fuller was back in Washington for the 2020 season following a two-year stint in Kansas City. 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. Rankings&Projections |WR/CB Matchup Chart |NFL & NCAA Betting Dashboards | NFL Player Props Tool | NFL & NCAA Power Rankings Return to Top; Players. Ahmad Gardner, Cincinnati . Changing that and successfully developing Okudah and Melifonwu will be crucial to this secondary climbing out of the cellar. The strength of this group comes from two former Washington Huskies. No group of cornerbacks played more man coverage than the Miami Dolphins. Check out the 2021 NFL Opposition & Defensive Statistics including AFC and NFC results and standings on Pro-football-reference.com Mahomes is king again at age 25 and may not be dethroned for a long time. 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. Terrells breakout to elite status, Atlanta would be threatening to place last on this list. We started to see signs of the Louisville product's playmaking ability in 2019, as his 16 forced incompletions ranked second at the position. 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. From Week 7 on, Ward allowed more than 50 yards in coverage just once. 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