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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Richard Sherman, Emmanuel Moseley and Troy Hill make the cut.
The Arizona Cardinals struggled mightily in pass coverage last season. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph believes in using mostly man coverage with his cornerbacks but they do mix in zone as well.
Two play for the San Francisco 49ers. Richard Sherman and Emmanuel Moseley were included. Sherman is no surprise, as he is in the back end of what surely will be a Hall of Fame career. Moseley thrived despite not being the starter initially. He vastly outplayed Ahkello Witherspoon, writes Farrar.
No Seattle Seahawks make the list, but the Los Angeles Rams’ Troy Hill makes it.
Jalen Ramsey will surely get the bulk of the attention in the Rams’ secondary, but Troy Hill shouldn’t fly too far under the radar. Hill was Los Angeles’ best cornerback in the second half of last season, stepping up in a big way after Marcus Peters was traded and Aqib Talib landed on IR.
In 14 games a year ago, Hill only allowed 26 catches on 57 targets (45.6%) and two touchdowns, breaking up eight passes with two interceptions. Where he really excelled was in zone coverage.
According to Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, Hill was one of the best zone cornerbacks in the NFL last season. While in zone coverage, Hill only allowed seven catches on 20 targets for 118 yards. He didn’t give up a single touchdown in zone and picked off one pass. His positive play rate of 35% was fifth-best among all cornerbacks with at least 20 targets.
Farrar notes Hill’s fit in Wade Phillips’ scheme, which featured 57% zone coverage last year, but it remains to be seen how he’ll be used in Brandon Staley’s system.
“Hill was an ideal player in Phillips’ defense with his trail ability and recovery speed; it remains to be seen how he’ll be utilized in the new schematic paradigm,” Farrar wrote.
Hill has been criticized often by Rams fans over the years for his inconsistent play and for how often he gave up big receptions. That wasn’t the case last season, which was arguably his best as a pro.
Quarterbacks will do their best to avoid Ramsey in coverage, which means Hill and the Rams’ other cornerbacks will see a lot of passes come their way in 2020. If he can lock down No. 2 receivers, it’ll go a long way toward helping the entire defense improve.
Who are the NFL’s best zone coverage cornerbacks? When you match stats to tape, here are the 11 top players with that designation.
In the 2019 NFL season, defenses dealt with a total of 17,854 passing attempts. Of those passing attempts, per Sports Info Solutions, 10,025 passing attempts came against some form of zone coverage — Cover-2, Cover-3, Cover-4, Cover-6, combo coverage, or Tampa-2. That 56.1% rate is fairly representative of the NFL over the last few years, but there are wild deviations in the amount of zone coverage teams will play. The Chargers led the league in zone coverage rate at 75%, while the Patriots had the lowest rate at 37%.
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When you have one team playing twice as much zone coverage as another in the same league at the same time, it’s a fascinating construct. And within that construct, here are the cornerbacks who played zone coverages at the very highest levels in the 2019 season.
(All metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise specified).
Troy Hill had some high praise for Brandon Staley, comparing him to Sean McVay.
When Sean McVay was hired by the Rams in 2017, his choice for defensive coordinator came as a surprise. He brought in legendary coach Wade Phillips, who was more than twice his age. The partnership worked for three years, but after a disappointing and inconsistent season in 2019, McVay decided to part ways with Phillips by not extending his contract.
And so, in comes a lesser-known name in Brandon Staley, who has no experience as a defensive coordinator. He’s 37 years old and although he’ll likely stick with Phillips’ 3-4 base defense, the unit should look different in 2020.
Troy Hill can already see the difference in going from Phillips to Staley, simply based on their energy levels. Hill even called Staley a McVay-type of coach on defense because of his knowledge and the way he talks.
Rams CB Troy Hill on defensive coord Brandon Staley: "I like his energy. It's kinda like a McVay of the defense almost, the way he talks and how smart he is. I feel like that's what I needed. We're feeding off it, and I feel it, just seeing how in tune the players are with him."
McVay is viewed as one of the smartest young coaches in the NFL, so for Staley to draw that comparison – even by one of his own players – is a good sign. It seemed McVay wanted to bring in a coach who was more his type and based on Staley’s coaching style, he seems to fit the mold.
It’s easy to get excited about the Rams’ defense under Staley, but there’s still a long way to go before this group is viewed as one of the best in football. It seems to be on the right track, though.
The Rams have to be looking ahead to the 2021 offseason.
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The Los Angeles Rams have their hands full with the five starters who are set to become free agents, but building a roster in the NFL doesn’t consist of narrowly looking toward the upcoming season. It involves a wider scope that includes looking ahead to future years with the salary cap in mind.
That being said, the Rams could potentially sign a player or two to extensions one year before they become free agents – something they like to do and have done with Rob Havenstein, Tyler Higbee, Todd Gurley and Jared Goff in recent years.
“You have to take it in process, but strategically we’ve always enjoyed checking that box for not only us, but for the player so that we all know, OK, we’re here together and we’re working toward the same goals for a long time,” Snead said at the combine of extending players early.
Here are five players the Rams could consider extending this offseason rather than waiting.
WR Cooper Kupp
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The Rams already have two wideouts under contract for the next few years with Robert Woods and Brandin Cooks. However, Kupp will be a free agent after the 2020 season and continues to get better each and every year.
If the Rams want to potentially save some money, they can sign him to an extension this offseason before he puts up great numbers again in 2020. If he does that, and with the salary cap always increasing, his price tag is only going to grow. Kupp’s eventual contract could replace that of Cooks’ if the Rams move on at some point, too.
This isn’t to say the Rams should sign him to a new deal now, but it’s certainly something that’s on the table.
The Houston Texans have a need a cornerback that could be addressed in free agency with the addition of former Los Angeles Rams CB Troy Hill.
The Houston Texans have a shakeup coming with the cornerback group, and it is partly due to starters Johnathan Joseph and Bradley Roby set to enter free agency.
Rather than re-signing their starters, Anthony Treash from Pro Football Focus believes the Texans should take a look at former Cincinnati Bengal and Los Angeles Ram Troy Hill.
Houston’s secondary has hindered the team’s success. The unit ranked 28th in coverage grade and will see its top two cornerbacks, Johnathan Joseph and Bradley Roby — who were average at best — enter free agency. They’ll need to bring in multiple cornerbacks, and one they need to be targeting is Troy Hill. While with the Rams these past four years, Hill has never seen a full season as a starter — but his 2019 production makes him deserving of such a role. Hill’s coverage grade was among the 25 best in football, and he allowed the second lowest catch rate (45.1%). With little draft capital, Houston will have to nail free agency, and Troy Hill for a lower cost is a good start.
Hill collected a career-high 41 tackles in 2019 and produced eight pass breakups, also a career-high. The former undrafted free agent from Oregon started in nine of his 14 games played for the Rams, adding 1.0 sack along with his two interceptions, which also tied a career-high.
Currently, the Texans have 2019 second-round pick Lonnie Johnson under contract along with Gareon Conley and Vernon Hargreaves. Houston also has Cornell Armstrong and Anthony Chesley on the roster. While Keion Crossen is also a cornerback, the former New England Patriot is more on the roster for special teams purposes than actual play in the secondary.
The problem with going with Hill is it would be adding above average talent at a position that was inconsistent in 2019. Of course, if the Texans can find a way to fix the pass rush, theoretically, they should be able to field a quality defense, even with Hill as one of their starting corners.
Two Rams cornerbacks finished in the top 20 this season, but neither was named Jalen Ramsey.
The Los Angeles Rams had some big-name cornerbacks suit up for them in 2019, beginning with Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib. Both players were traded midseason, with Peters going on to become a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro.
The Rams replaced Peters with Jalen Ramsey, whom they acquired in a trade with the Jaguars. He also made the Pro Bowl, but his numbers weren’t eye-popping in Los Angeles.
Two players who got overlooked in all the shuffling were Nickell Robey-Coleman and Troy Hill. They each had strong 2019 seasons despite not making the Pro Bowl or receiving any post-season recognition. Yet, they finished the year as not only the Rams’ two best cornerbacks, but two of the 20 best in the NFL.
Robey-Coleman ended the season as Pro Football Focus’ No. 19-ranked cornerback in the league, with Hill close behind at No. 20. Robey-Coleman allowed a passer rating of just 80.1 when targeted (13th in NFL) and ranked sixth in yards per slot coverage snap (0.63), putting together one of his best seasons.
Nickell Robey-Coleman continues to solidify himself as one of the league’s best slot cornerbacks. He accelerates with quick closing speed after showing patience in press man-to-man coverage, and he is good enough to stick with receivers at the top of their routes.
As for Hill, he took over for Talib after the veteran landed on injured reserve, starting every game from Week 6 to Week 15; he missed the final two games due to injury. PFF recognized his play opposite Ramsey, seeing a healthy share of targets each week, but still holding up well and answering the bell.
As an undrafted player in 2015, Troy Hill landed in Wade Phillips’ defense and become one of the top-performing corners in the league. Hill has allowed the fewest receptions (23) of any cornerback with a minimum of 300 coverage snaps, and he is one of only three qualifying corners to surrender a completion percentage under 50.0% after he allowed only 45.1% of his targets to be caught during the regular season. Hill was moved into a starting role after the Rams moved on from Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters, but he has rewarded the move by developing into a primetime presence in the Rams’ promising secondary.
Hill and Ramsey figure to be back as the starters at cornerback in 2020, while Robey-Coleman’s future has yet to be determined. The Rams can pick up his option for $4.5 million in 2020, which would seem like an obvious decision – especially after seeing how well he played this season.
Sean McVay shared some good news and some bad news during his press conference on Thursday. He opened the media session by saying Troy Hill has been ruled out for Saturday’s game against the 49ers, but Gerald Everett is set to return after missing three straight games with a knee injury.
Hill underwent surgery on his broken thumb this week but the Rams were cautiously optimistic he’d be able to play with a cast on his hand. They’re opting to play it safe and will keep him off the field this weekend.
“Surgery went well, he’s feeling good. But we felt like the best thing for him and as we move forward was gonna be to keep him out this week,” McVay said.
Darious Williams filled in for Hill last week against Dallas, playing all but the two snaps Hill missed. He stepped up in a big way and limited the production of the Cowboys’ receivers, so the Rams have plenty of confidence in him for this game.
As for Greg Zuerlein, who has a quad strain, his status remains uncertain. Listed as questionable, he’s going to kick for the first time on Friday in an attempt to determine whether he can play.
“Greg is making good progress,” McVay said. “We’ll kick him tomorrow, see how he’s feeling. Have some guys coming in for a workout – really have one guy coming in for a workout. We keep those things in-house, so we’ll keep consistent with our normal standard operating procedures with that.”
McVay made it clear that Zuerlein is feeling good and he doesn’t anticipate him not being able to play, but the Rams are exercising caution with their kicker. They worked out Brett Maher on Thursday as a backup plan if Zuerlein can’t play.
One player not on the injury report is Rob Havenstein, who hasn’t played since Week 10 due to a knee injury. He was a full participant in practice for the second week in a row, and he doesn’t carry any status designation this week unlike last week when he was doubtful.
