Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020
For slot receivers, it was 11.63. So, over time and based on the play design and the makeup of the receivers, teams could find just that many more yards by throwing to their slot targets. The best slot receivers in the game bring unique and highly valuable traits to the game, and here are the best among them. Earlier, I mentioned Denzel Ward as one of my 2020 breakout cornerback candidates. Jaire Alexander is the other. Alexander is an extremely fluid athlete that gets in and out of his backpedal with little wasted movement and has the innate match-and-mirror ability to stay in the receiver’s hip pocket throughout the entirety of the pattern. It’s hard to rank Lattimore much lower than 10, as his ceiling isn’t far off from that of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, but he hasn’t been able to reach that ceiling with any consistency in 2020. 9) Patrick Peterson, Arizona Cardinals. Speaking of cornerbacks that used to be at the top of this list, enter Patrick Peterson. For Alexander, his 10-week stretch in 2018 made him one of the best slot cornerbacks in the NFL, but for whatever reason, that didn’t carry over to 2019. His 85.7 passer rating ranked 19th among qualifying cornerbacks in the slot and a pair of injuries raised questions about his durability, which let the Vikings feel comfortable about letting. Detroit Lions cornerback Justin Coleman will primarily guard him, but Coleman allows a top-quarter target rate (18%), a top-10 catch rate (80%), and a top-half yards per coverage snap (1.3.
Recently, Mark Schofield and I compiled 14 different lists of the 11 best players at every position. From those names, we then compiled this list of the top 101 players in the NFL today. In this top 101, we forced ourselves to stick to players we had named in the positional lists, to avoid overdoing “skill position players” at the expense of slot cornerbacks, guards and interior defensive linemen. By drawing from a full list of positions as opposed to loading this with the most popular or highest-paid players, hopefully it gives a better and wider sense of the talent around the league than some other lists might.
The top 11 lists: Slot defenders Outside cornerbacks Safeties Linebackers Edge defenders Interior defensive linemen Offensive tackles Offensive guards Centers Outside Receivers Slot receivers Tight ends Running backs Quarterbacks
That said, this policy made for some weird decisions. Because when you limit yourself to the top 11 players at any position, you’re invariably going to leave some players out who deserve to be in. What if there are three or four really great slot cornerbacks, and 14 to 15 really great quarterbacks? You still have to leave Ryan Tannehill and Matthew Stafford off the list, which seems odd. Or, if Stefon Diggs doesn’t make your top 11 in a league where the group of outside receivers is absolutely stacked, you have to omit him, too. Not ideal.
Why 11 instead of 10? As the noted musical philosopher Nigel Tufnel once noted, it’s one louder.
But as they say, perfect is the enemy of good, and we wanted to stick with this particular paradigm. So, there are quite a few honorable mentions who didn’t make it, but certainly would have if the list were 10 to 20 players longer (and louder).
Chris Carson, Mark Ingram, Joe Mixon, Austin Hooper, Tyler Higbee, Dallas Goedert, Hunter Henry, Darren Waller, Jared Cook, Kenny Golladay, Joel Bitonio, Graham Glasgow, Richie Incognito, Brandon Scherff, Ryan Kelly, Jason Kelce, Alex Mack, Nickell Robey-Coleman, Jaylon Smith, Deion Jones, Cory Littleton, La’el Collins, Laremy Tunsil, and Taylor Lewan are among the players who just missed the cut. This should in no way be seen as us maligning their value as players… it’s just that there are only so many slots for any of these guys.
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Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 Nfl
So, here are the ones who did make the cut. Here is Touchdown Wire’s list of the top 101 players heading into the 2020 NFL season.
Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 Draft
Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 2021
The Top 101: 101-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1