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AFC North Top Spot for Corners in the NFL

AFC North

One of the game’s top corners over the last decade, Richard Sherman, has not yet signed with an NFL team. The former Seattle Seahawk and San Francisco 49er hasn’t a deal to his liking and where Sherman lands will certainly change the Super Bowl odds as well as at the cornerback position itself. Without knowing where Sherman will land, however, we have to do the best we can and rank the eight divisions relative to their overall quality at this important position. The NFL is a pass-first league, and if you have to throw well to make the Super Bowl, you also have to be able to defend the pass with a reasonable degree of competence. Here are the current division rankings based on cornerback prowess, subject to change if Sherman moves to a specific team.

1) AFC North

The division that put three teams in the playoffs last season has quality pass defenders, spread across four teams. Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey give the Baltimore Ravens skill on the edges in defending deep-ball threats. Joe Haden of the Pittsburgh Steelers has spent a lot of time in the AFC North. He was formerly with the Cleveland Browns. Now he is in Pittsburgh patrolling the secondary. Denzel Ward is a strong back-line defender for the Browns. Don’t forget about Trae Waynes of the Cincinnati Bengals. He might be on a bad team, but he can still ball. Having top-30-level corners on all four teams puts the AFC North on top. The other divisions don’t have top-tier corners on all four teams. That’s a defining difference.

Richard Sherman
Christian Petersen/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Christian Petersen / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

2) AFC East

The AFC East boasts Xavien Howard and Byron Jones of the Miami Dolphins. Another team, the New England Patriots, also has two strong corners, with J.C. Jackson and Stephon Gilmore. The Bills have Tre White to give this division a third team with a high-end corner. The New York Jets, however, don’t have an imposing figure in their secondary, which prevents the AFC East from topping the AFC North for the No. 1 spot on this list.

3) NFC East

This was not a good division last year, but there are some standout corners. William Jackson and Kendall Fuller represent the Washington Football Team. James Bradberry and Adoree Jackson both give the Giants quality cornerback play. Darius Slay is a top corner for the Philadelphia Eagles. There is plenty of quality here, but the Dallas Cowboys don’t have the elite guy, much like the Jets in the AFC East.

4) NFC West

The Los Angeles Rams possibly have the best pair of corners in the NFL. They regularly contained the Seattle Seahawks’ talented receivers in three different meetings against Seattle last year. Jalen Ramsey locked down D.K. Metcalf, and Darious Williams had a great read on Russell Wilson, making the Seahawks’ quarterback absolutely miserable. The problem with the NFC West is that the corners aren’t that great once you get beyond the loaded Rams. Jason Verrett is good with the San Francisco 49ers, but the Niners’ pass defense was often shredded last year and needs a bounce-back campaign in 2021. The Seahawks’ cornerbacks were terrible in the first half of the 2020 season before stabilizing to a degree in the second half of the campaign. The Arizona Cardinals are still trying to develop high-end talent in their secondary, especially at corner. Malcolm Butler, though, is a good one.

5) NFC South

The NFC South, last season, had Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, and Drew Brees. Teams had to be able to defend the pass well. The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with the help of their prime corners, Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean. The New Orleans Saints have Marshon Lattimore, who has been superbr. There are some excellent corners in this division, but it is held back on this list (unable to crack the top three) because the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers, don’t have top-tier representation among NFL corners.

6) AFC South

The AFC South has Bradley Roby of the Houston Texans, Shaquill Griffin of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Xavier Rhodes of the Indianapolis Colts, and Janoris Jenkins of the Tennessee Titans. These are four solid corners, but there are no superstars, unlike Jalen Ramsey of the Rams or Stephon Gilmore of the Patriots. There also aren’t multiple elite corners on any single team, unlike some of the other divisions mentioned higher on this list. There is little quality depth in the AFC South among NFL cornerbacks. That is noticed by many around the league.

7) AFC West

The AFC West needs to be great at the cornerback position in order to stand in the way of the Kansas City Chiefs’ passing attack with Patrick Mahomes, and it needs to be formidable in order to contain the Los Angeles Chargers’ passing game with Justin Herbert. Mahomes is a great player and Herbert is a promising second-year player, but it remains that AFC West defenses generally didn’t hold them down this past season. Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby of the Denver Broncos are good, but there isn’t an elite shutdown corner on the Chiefs or Chargers. Casey Hayward of the Raiders might be the best non-Denver corner in the whole division. That’s not a lot. This position group will have to get better if the AFC West is to make life more difficult for Mahomes and Herbert in the coming years, starting with 2021.

8) NFC North

Jaire Alexander of the Green Bay Packers is a fantastic cornerback… and who else is there in the division? They might not need more in terms of the NFL divisional odds because – if Aaron Rodgers comes back – they’ll cruise. However, they do need more to win the Super Bowl.

The Lions gave up on Darius Slay a while ago and he is now with the Eagles while the Minnesota Vikings were not good in pass defense last season. They have regressed relative to their NFC Championship Game season in 2017. The Chicago Bears have an awesome front seven but aren’t as sturdy on the back line of their defense. The Packers have Alexander, but the rest of their secondary was exposed by Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in last season’s NFC Championship Game. It’s a thin group with little high-end prowess.

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