• Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 2021
• Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 Draft

Most great outside cornerbacks want to stay outside for those exact reasons. As Richard Sherman once told me, the boundary is your friend, and if you have open space on both sides of your coverage, it isn’t a lot of fun. So, here are the best slot defenders in the business coming into the 2019 season, and what makes each one of them special. Jul 10, 2020 So, which slot defenders were the most effective and valuable to their teams in 2019, and thus should be set up to do the same in 2020? With help from Pro Football Focus’ metrics, and a whole lot of tape study, here’s one list. To avoid small sample-size results, each of these defenders played at least 50% of their snaps in the slot. The PFF unit-ranking series moves to the secondary as we look forward to the 2020 season. Depth is key when projecting the secondary in today's NFL, as the best teams are rolling three or four deep at cornerback now that the nickel is a starting position. Safeties are also taking on a more prominent role in many schemes, doubling as linebacke. With 20 passes defended in four seasons where he did not play all 16 games, this looks to be the best cornerback currently on the Denver roster. 1) Kenny Moore II, Indianapolis Colts. In 42 games playing in the slot position, Moore has already amassed 19 passes defended, six interceptions, and 10 tackles for loss.

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

Best Slot Cornerbacks 2020 2021

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.

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

The Top 101: 101-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1