Philadelphia Eagles star Darius Slay left off a ranking of the NFL’s 11 best outside CB’s
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The 2020 offseason has seen a myriad of cornerback rankings from different NFL outlets with the one consistent being the snubbing of the Eagles star cornerback.
Slay is among the top-5 cornerbacks in football and yet has suffered countless disrespect this offseason when it comes to where he stands among the NFL’s elite cornerbacks. Our friends over at Touchdown Wire just released their rankings for the top-11 outside cornerbacks in the NFL and Slay was once again omitted.
11. Bashaud Breeland
10. Steven Nelson
9. Troy Hill
8. Marcus Peters
7.Ross Cockrel
6. Denzel Ward
5. Quinton Dunbar
4. J.C. Jackson
3. Richard Sherman
2. TreâDavious White
1. Stephon Gilmore
While many of the teams in the NFL primarily play zone coverage, Slay is one of the few players in the NFL that were asked to play bump and run on the majority of their snaps.
Take this tidbit from Packers star DeVante Adams on Slay and the Lions defense last season.
In his breakdown with @BaldyNFL, Davante Adams said the #Lions never disguise coverage. Adams watched 200 clips and Darius Slay never followed WRs if it was zone but always did in man.
Slay was impressive last year despite some down statistics on a bad team and yet his performance against some of the NFL’s best would be highlight-reel performances for some other cornerbacks.
The Seahawks are facing a number of the league’s best teams in 2020, and with the best teams come some of the best players.
The Seattle Seahawks are scheduled to face several of the league’s top teams in 2020, and with those teams come a number of players that could prove a serious hassle for the Seahawks to overcome in their matchups. To that end, I put together a list of one player from each of the Seahawks’ opponents that should make a difference in Seattle’s approach to each game.
I chose not to select any quarterbacks, running backs, or wide receivers for this list, as the success of those positions is obviously paramount to a team’s chances of winning.
With that said, here is one player from each of the Seahawks’ 2020 opponents that could make a huge impact on Seattle’s game plan:
Week 1 (Sept. 13): Atlanta Falcons
Impact player:Â DB Ricardo Allen
The veteran safety trio of Keanu Neal, Damontae Kazee, and Ricardo Allen should scare Seahawks fans, considering how often Russell Wilson likes to throw deep; in particular, Allen should see plenty of action due to his versatility. After missing 13 games in 2018 due to injury, Allen posted a fantastic 2019 campaign with 85 tackles, eight batted passes, and two interceptions. The Falcons are considering switching Allen to the nickel position, which would allow him, Neal, and Kazee to patrol the backfield and force the Seahawks to keep to the ground.
Boundary cornerbacks who can erase an opponent’s best receiver are more important than ever. Here are the NFL’s 11 best.
Let’s say you’re an NFL team, and you need a bunch of really good cornerbacks. Step one, of course, is determining which characteristics define your version of that ideal. Last season, the Chargers led the NFL by playing 75% zone coverage, so their definitions are going to be different than the ones the Patriots come up with — because the Patriots played man coverage on 54% of their snaps. Only the Lions played more man coverage, and the extent to which the Lions failed to do so at a competent level implies that perhaps they weren’t exact enough with their definitions.
Add in the fact that teams are playing more dime than base defense these days (20.9% dime to 18% base), and it’s an NFL that demands more cornerbacks, and more of those cornerbacks, than ever before. It used to be enough to press up against your receiver and work him to the boundary; now, you may have to move from zone to man to combo with different numbers of defensive backs around you. And you’re doing that against offenses that present more receivers in more complex formations and route concepts than ever before.
The outside cornerback position has never been more valuable than it is now as a result, and here are the 11 best at the position as we head into the 2020 season.
Assembling a list of the NFL’s 11 best outside cornerbacks in 2020 is a brutal exercise, because there are so many good cornerbacks in the NFL out of necessity. There were instances in which the players fell just short of the 50-target limit — our apologies to Jason McCourty of the Patriots and Jimmy Smith of the Ravens, who each had 49 targets (including the postseason) and would have challenged for the top 11 with an extra rep or two. Sidney Jones of the Eagles and Jamel Dean of the Buccaneers are two younger players who also didn’t make the target limit, but are excellent talents on the rise. In other instances, overall coverage numbers represented a primary focus on the slot, and while guys like Brian Poole of the Jets, Marlon Humphrey of the Ravens, K’Waun Williams of the 49ers, and D.J. Hayden of the Jaguars also played well outside to a point, it wasn’t their primary focus. So, you’ll find all of those guys on our list of the NFL’s top 11 slot defenders.
There were other cases in which cornerbacks had high interception totals and good overall charting stats, but their touchdowns allowed (stats backed up by tape study) got in the way. So it was for Pittsburgh’s Joe Haden, who allowed 49 catches on 79 targets for 468 yards, 139 yards after the catch, had five interceptions, and allowed an opponent passer rating of 70.0… but also allowed six touchdowns. Marcus Peters of the Ravens barely made this list because of a similar touchdown problem, but the negative plays he did create for opposing offenses were frequent and important enough to be considered.
Every NFL team has at least one player whose play deserves more praise than it gets. Here’s every team’s most underrated player.
In the NFL, players are underrated for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes, they’re second banana to a superstar whose deeds take up all the oxygen. Other times, it may be that the player has to climb up the depth chart as a little-regarded contributor, and the media hasn’t caught up yet. It’s also possible that the player has an incandescent talent that’s hidden by an unfavorable scheme. And it could also be that the player has had one great season, and everyone’s waiting to see if it’s a fluke.
No matter the reasons, every player on this list has set an exceptional standard deserving of more recognition. Here are the most underrated players for every NFL team going into the 2020 season.
Arizona Cardinals: EDGE Chandler Jones
(Getty Images)
Do you know which NFL player has the most sacks since 2012? We’re kind of giving it away here, but yes, it is Chandler Jones with 96 since his rookie season. That puts him above Von Miller, J.J. Watt, Cameron Jordan, Justin Houston, Aaron Donald, and anyone else you’d care to mention. Jones also has 85 quarterback hits and 307 quarterback hurries in that time, but he’s rarely discussed when it’s time to talk about the league’s edge-rushers. This despite the fact that he led the league in sacks in 2017 with 17 and finished second to Shaquil Barrett with 19 last season. Perhaps it’s because he’s been doing his work of late with a Cardinals team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2015, but no pass-rusher deserves more praise in line with his accomplishments than Jones.
Atlanta Falcons: DL Grady Jarrett
(Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports)
Lost in the specter of the Falcons’ 28-3 meltdown in Super Bowl LI was the fact that Jarrett, the Falcons’ fifth-round pick in 2015, was a borderline MVP candidate with three sacks and four quarterback hits before everything fell apart. Downgraded out of Clemson because he was allegedly too short, Jarrett has been a remarkable interior disruptor throughout his NFL career. Whether aligned at nose tackle or three-technique, Jarrett has totaled at least 43 quarterback hurries every season since 2016. The Falcons rewarded him with a four-year, $68 million contract in July, 2019, but Jarrett still doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.
Baltimore Ravens: OT Ronnie Stanley
(Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
Who’s the best left tackle in the NFL today? Were you to poll 100 experts, you’d get several different answers. But it’s hard to argue against Stanley, who allowed just one sack and 10 total pressures in 543 pass-blocking snaps last season, and helped the Ravens put together the NFL’s most dynamic rushing attack in his 489 run-blocking snaps. The 2019 season marked Stanley’s first All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods, and there should be more of that to come. Lamar Jackson is the talk of Baltimore’s offense, but it wouldn’t go the way it does without Stanley’s presence.
Buffalo Bills: WR John Brown
(JAMIE GERMANO/ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE -Imagn Content Services, LLC)
The big news for the Bills this offseason was the trade that brought Stefon Diggs to the team, but Buffalo’s receiver corps was already pretty strong, and Brown was the primary reason in 2019. Despite the fact that he plied his trade in a new offense and took passes from erratic quarterback Josh Allen, the former Cardinal and Raven set a career high with 72 receptions and posted the second 1,000-yard season of his career. The addition of Diggs should give Brown more one-on-one opportunities to succeed — especially if Allen is able to get his GPS aligned.
Carolina Panthers: S Tre Boston
(Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
Few deep safeties have been as adept in pass coverage than Boston over the last five season, so it has been a mystery why the Panthers cut him in 2017, and why he was unable to find more than a series of one-year deals with different teams until Carolina re-assessed its approach and signed him to a three-year, $18 million deal in March. It’s still chump change for a guy who plays as well as Boston does — he’s totaled 16 interceptions to just eight touchdowns allowed in his career — but it’s a nice bounceback for a player whose desire to protest may have cost him a more lucrative deal.
Chicago Bears: WR Allen Robinson
(Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports)
If any current receiver would be justified in filing a grievance against the NFL for lack of quarterback support, it would be Robinson, who has moved from Blake Bortles as his primary QB in Jacksonville to Mitchell Trubisky in Chicago. Hardly ideal. Still, Robinson led the NFL in touchdown receptions with 14 in 2015, and last season, with Trubisky falling apart most of the time, he still caught 98 passes for 1,147 yards and seven touchdowns. 2020 marks the last year of Robinson’s current contract with the Bears, and he’ll undoubtedly make the best of Chicago’s Trubisky/Nick Foles quaterback situation, and perhaps wind up on a team with a functional quarterback after that.
Cincinnati Bengals: RB Joe Mixon
(Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
The hope in Cincinnati is that the offense will come around with Joe Burrow at quarterback, but the Bengals are already set at the running back position, where Mixon gained 1,137 yards and five touchdowns on 278 carries last season, adding 35 receptions for 287 yards and three more touchdowns for good measure. Only five backs broke more rushing tackles than Mixon’s 52, and he totaled 14 runs of 15 or more yards last season, tied for fourth in the league.
Cleveland Browns: RB Nick Chubb
(AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Tennessee’s Derrick Henry was the NFL’s rushing leader in 2019, but it could easily be argued that Chubb was the league’s most efficient rusher. Not only did he gain 5.0 yards per carry (1,494 yards and eight touchdowns on 298 carries), but he also led the league in rushed of 15 or more yards (20), only the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs broke more rushing tackles than Chubb’s 66, and only Henry averaged more yards after contact per carry than Chubb’s 3.77. He was a one-man wrecking crew in a broken offense in 2019 — perhaps new head coach Kevin Stefanski can change that, but there’s no doubting Chubb’s status as one of the league’s rising stars.
The New England Patriots have no shortage of unheralded contributors. During the 2020 offseason, we saw some of those underrated standouts move on to different teams, where they got some overdue credit (in the form of major contracts).
Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy and Danny Shelton were among those who spun their hard work in New England into a big opportunity with another organization. But there are plenty of leftover contributors who are not getting the love they deserve. These starters or standouts are major contributors, even if they don’t get attention from media members or fans.
Here’s a look at six Patriots whose talents have gone underrated in recent years.
Lawrence Guy, DT
He’s a stud, and Bill Belichick takes every opportunity he can get to make sure everyone knows how much the coach appreciates the defensive tackle. Guy is a versatile lineman who played a number of positions on New England’s defensive front in 2019 but is primarily a space-eating interior player. He finished 2019 with 61 tackles, five for a loss, five quarterback hits, three sacks and an interception in 16 games. That tackle sum had him tied for the third-highest total among Patriots defenders, which is no small accomplishment for a defensive tackle.
The ability to play man coverage has always been highly important in the NFL. Who’s best at it coming into the 2020 NFL season?
Through the NFL’s eras, the ability to play man coverage at a high level has separated the best defenders from the rank and file in the minds of many. Al Davis built several historically great defenses on the backs of great man cornerbacks from Willie Brown to Lester Hayes. Deion Sanders’ ability to erase his section of the field without boundary help allowed his defensive coordinators to take all kinds of risks in other areas.
And today, the NFL’s best secondary belongs to the Patriots, who have combined the ideal man coverage defensive backs with a high rate of Cover-0, Cover-1, Cover-2 Man, and certain kinds of combo coverages that allow those players to bring out their best attributes. When you have NFL offenses relying more and more on quick-game passes, one-step drops, and RPOs, playing quality man coverage, especially at the short and intermediate levels of the defense, it just as important as it’s ever been, albeit for new and challenging reasons.
Who are the NFL’s best man coverage cornerbacks heading into the 2020 season — the ones who play with a unique combination of speed, quickness, aggressiveness, and a convenient amnesia to move on to the next play when things go wrong? Based on tape study and metrics from Sports Info Solutions and Pro Football Focus, here are the league’s most efficient defenders when it comes to this highly valuable skill.
Last season, the Packers played man coverage on 32% of their snaps, 18th-highest in the league, but when they did, King was there to make sure it mattered. In 2019, he allowed 29 catches on 39 man coverage targets for 349 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, three more dropped picks, and an opposing QBR of 56.14.
At 6’3″ and 200 pounds, King is one of the better new wave of big, physical press conerbacks developing right now. Aggressive to a fault off the line of scrimmage (and occasionally too grabby), King makes quick slants and drag routes very difficult for opposing receivers, because he has the size, physicality, and short-area quickness to erase those concepts. He will occaionally get lost on the back stem of longer routes, and smaller, quicker receivers can give him fits at times, but that can be said of most bigger cornerbacks, and when King trusts his instincts and doesn’t over-concentrate through the route, he’s just fine. The third-year man from Washington is one to watch.
Three Patriots earned a chunk of change for their performances in 2019.
Center Ted Karras was among three New England Patriots to earn an extra chunk of change for their services in 2019.
The NFL has had a performance-based pay program since 2002 that rewards players who have low salaries, but play high snap counts. The NFL’s top 25 earners from this pool were announced on Thursday.
Karras led the Patriots on the list at No. 2, cornerback J.C. Jackson landed at No. 9 and tackle Marshall Newhouse landed at No. 22. The NFL’s highest earner on the list was Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Charvarius Ward.
Here are the NFL's top 25 overall payouts from the performane-based pay pool and the veteran pool. Ted Karras ranked second overall behind KC's Charvarius Ward. J.C. Jackson was ninth. Marshall Newhouse 22nd. pic.twitter.com/z04fv4lbrJ
Karras is set for a big payday in free agency this offseason after an outstanding outing in 2019. Newhouse will hit free agency this offseason, while Jackson is under contract for another year with the Patriots.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar names eight unheralded players who could make all the difference for their teams in the wild-card round.
Every NFL postseason has its share of surprise performers. Whether it’s Otto Graham in the Browns’ first year in the NFL schooling the 1950 Philadelphia Eagles in that year’s championship game, or L.C. Greenwood — perhaps the least-known member of the Steel Curtain front four — racking up four sacks against the Cowboys in Super Bowl X, or then-Bills backup quarterback and current Colts head coach Frank Reich authoring the biggest comeback in NFL history against the Houston Oilers in the 1992 wild-card round, or Washington running back Timmy Smith shocking the Broncos with 204 rushing yards in Super Bowl XXII, it’s just as likely that the most important postseason performance comes from a guy whose name you’re not familiar with just yet.
This postseason is no exception, and there are all kinds of potential stars you might not know who are mere hours away from their breakout performance. Here’s one potential secret superstar for each of the eight wild-card teams this weekend.
Buffalo Bills: WR John Brown
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Bills general manager Brandon Beane has made more than his share of smart personnel decisions since he took the job in 2017, and one of the most astute has to be the March, 2019 signing of former Cardinals and Ravens receiver John Brown to a three-year, $27 million contract with $11.6 million guaranteed. All he’s done this season is set career highs in receptions (72) and receiving yards (1,060), while giving second-year quarterback Josh Allen quite the security blanket — especially on deep passes, where Brown has caught 10 of his 27 targets of 20 or more air yards for 332 yards and four touchdowns. No other Bills player has more than five deep receptions, and that’s tight end Dawson Knox.
There are all kinds of plays we should show to represent Brown’s importance to Buffalo’s passing game, but this 53-yard touchdown against the Patriots in Week 16 is the most compelling example.
Out of the right slot, Brown demolishes cornerback Stephon Gilmore on a nasty out-and-up for the only touchdown Gilmore’s given up all season, and then, he smokes safety Devin McCourty for good measure. No other NFL receiver can claim to have beaten both of these defenders on the same play in 2019; 2020 could be more of the same for the defenders trying to deal with Brown. Houston’s average to below-average cornerbacks could find him to be a particularly vexing test.
Tom Brady finally started to get some momentum in the passing game.
Here are the winners and losers from the New England Patriots’ 24-17 win over the Buffalo Bills in Week 16 at Gillette Stadium on Saturday.
The Patriots have clinched the AFC East, and will spend Week 17 attempting to hold off the Miami Dolphins, so that New England can retain their No. 2 seed and a first-round bye.
Winner: Tom Brady, QB
Brady led a 17-play, 81-yard drive, which spanned over 8 minutes and 58 seconds. The drive started on that 1-yard line. While the drive concluded with a field goal, it was representative of Brady’s best self in 2019. He spread the ball around, but favored Julian Edelman. The quarterback’s patience and accuracy were New England’s biggest asset. The offense was a flashback to what they did best in the early 2000s: death with a thousand incisions — which requires great precision.
That hasn’t come together in previous games — it did on Saturday night. Brady finished 26 of 33 for 271 yards and one touchdown.
Loser (until he proved a winner): Rex Burkhead, RB
His fumble on the Patriots’ opening drive felt like a significant swing in points. The Bills turned around and scored on a field goal. But New England was moving the ball well, and looked poised to score at least three points. The turnover was a momentum changer.
Then the script flipped completely on Burkhead.
He was reliable after that, with five carries for 20 yards and a touchdown with four catches for 77 yards on the game. He and the Patriots offensive line did well running screen passes, which helped him finish with the most receiving yards for New England. But Burkhead’s most impressive play of the game came on 1-yarder. Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander hammered Burkhead, who somehow stayed upright and managed to make his way into the end zone.
