Whether it was Mike Zimmer’s era or even before that, the Vikings have utilized plenty of older cornerbacks in order to stop opposing offenses.
So it makes sense that Pro Football Focus named two former Minnesota cornerbacks to its All-Old Man Team: Terence Newman and Antoine Winfield.
Here’s what PFF’s Ben Linsey wrote about Newman:
“Nearly all of Newman’s snaps came at outside cornerback, and he allowed just 245 receiving yards into his coverage all season on over 400 coverage snaps. Newman had nearly as many forced incompletion (nine) as he did first downs allowed through the air (12). He gave the Vikings several strong seasons late in his career, but that effort in 2016 was the best of the bunch.”
Linsey also had positive things to say about Winfield:
“Winfield’s coverage stats were impressive — he allowed a passer rating of just 70.4 on 90 passes into his coverage in 2012 — but not as impressive as his run defense and tackling. Winfield led all cornerbacks this season in run-defense grade (92.3). That was a trademark for the undersized Winfield throughout his career.”
Last offseason, the Vikings opted to replace older cornerbacks with younger, more inexperienced talent. If Cameron Dantzler and Jeff Gladney work out, maybe Minnesota will land more cornerbacks on PFF’s All-Old Man Team down the road. It would’ve been nice for the Vikings to have Winfield’s son, though.