" The Shutdown Seven : Rating the Best Cornerbacks in the NFL " ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

I blame Deion Sanders. Primetime came along just as the modern NFL was born, and with him, cornerback became the type of high-profile position typically reserved for ball carriers and pass-catchers. In the past few years, it feels like quarterback is the only position in football that has inspired more debate about who’s the best. And in a way, it makes sense.

 

For the best corners, the challenge is simple: Stop the guy across from you. If you don’t, there’s no one around to blame. Several of the league’s best corners live on an island (even Richard Sherman’s time in Cover 3 has him playing without a parachute), which explains the amount of ego you see at the position. And in the run-up to this season, the answer is still murky. Sherman didn’t lose a step after 2013, but Darrelle Revis certainly got one back. Patrick Peterson fell off a bit, but a budding star in Denver arrived. There may not be a good answer to the question of who’s the best cornerback in the league as 2015 begins, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to find one.

 

~ ~  The King

 

Darrelle Revis

 

The debate over whether a corner can be the best in football without covering a team’s no. 1 receiver is so reductive that it’s not even worth talking about. Sherman does what is asked of him in Seattle, and much of the Seahawks’ success is a product of the ruthless efficiency with which the players execute their assignments.They dictate what the offense will do,rather than the other way around.For years, the Patriots have taken the opposite approach — they react. Last season, Revis gave Bill Belichick a tool he hasn’t wielded in years. New England didn’t ask Revis to do what he did so often in New York — shadow the best receiver on the field and let the 10 other guys figure the rest out — which is part of why the talk about shadowing a no. 1 guy is overstated.

 

Against the Lions, the Patriots chose to bracket Calvin Johnson with a corner and a safety while Revis chased around Golden Tate, who was having the best season of his career. Sherman’s performance in the past two seasons has been undeniable, but at his best, Revis can still do more at a high level than any corner in the league. At 30, Revis is no longer the athlete he was pre-ACL surgery, but he doesn’t need to be. He’s a technician unlike any other cornerback in the league, and it allows plays like this to be the standard. What made Revis the class of the position once again last year isn’t what the Patriots asked him to do every week. It’s that they could ask him to do anything.

 

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