Our friends at Cowboys Wire recently sought to develop a new statistic to more accurately grade cornerback play.
Second-year Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs was sensational in 2021, leading the league in interceptions by a good margin. Yet, Diggs was graded poorly by Pro Football Focus. Cowboys Wire’s K.D. Drummond seemed to feel that PFF’s grading didn’t accurately reflect how well Diggs had played this season. Basically, corners were being graded negatively for passing yards allowed and touchdowns allowed, as they should be, but they weren’t being graded positively for interceptions made as well as the result of those interceptions.
Using Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (ANY/A) as a starting point, K.D. Drummond came up with Adjusted Net Yards Allowed per Coverage Snap (ANYA/CS). The formula to calculate it is as follows:
Adjusted net passing yards allowed per target = ((Passing Yards Allowed-Return Yardage) + (Passing TDs Allowed – Return TDs)*20 – (INTs)*45)) / (Coverage Snaps).
Drummond compiled stats from Pro Football Focus and Pro Football Reference in order to calculate ANYA/CS. Kansas City had four players among the 78 qualifying cornerbacks (min. 10 games played and 400 coverage snaps). Here’s a look at where they ranked:
| Rank | Player | Age | Targets per game | Coverage snaps | Interceptions | Targets | Yards allowed | TDs allowed | Return Yards | Return TDs | ANYA/CS |
| 25 | Rashad Fenton | 24 | 3.9 | 422 | 0 | 54 | 322 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.76 |
| 33 | L’Jarius Sneed | 24 | 5.3 | 661 | 2 | 80 | 585 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.84 |
| 36 | Charvarius Ward | 25 | 5.8 | 584 | 2 | 76 | 511 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.86 |
| 58 | Mike Hughes | 24 | 3.6 | 427 | 1 | 61 | 424 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.12 |
So what should Chiefs fans take away from this?
If ANYA/CS is a more accurate reflection of cornerback play, the two best corners in Kansas City are still under contract and will be back in 2022. While the team did have four qualifying cornerbacks, only one ranked among the top 25 in the league. That shouldn’t be terribly surprising given the lack of investment they’ve made in the position during Brett Veach’s tenure as general manager — something he has said is more of a fluke than how the team values cornerback play.
Bottom line: There is room for improvement when it comes to the cornerback group for the Chiefs. Some of that improvement will come when they get better on the defensive line. It’s also possible (read likely) that the team could look to the 2022 NFL draft or free agency to add some pieces.
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