Statistically Superior: The Best Cornerbacks in the AFC North

[stillers4me]

Okay, we are going to completely ignore scheme and everything else and just look at who, statistically, has the best cornerbacks in our division. I will be using PFF's stats, so if you are not a member you will just have to believe me with the numbers. Arbitrarily, I will just break it down by tackling, playmaking ability, and coverage skills. For sake of brevity, I will exclude players with less than 150 snaps.

Table notes: The tables are sortable. Click the table header to sort by that row. Green boxes represent leader in that category and red boxes represent the worst. Stops are plays that constitute an offensive failure (that can be a tackle for a loss or a tackle that prevents a 3rd down conversion). MT = missed tackle. QB Pr = QB Pressure. FF = forced fumble. TA = thrown at. Rec = reception against. % Ct = % of TAs caught. YAC = yards after catch. PD = pass defensed/deflected...........

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[suitanim]

What I took away from this is that the Steelers, as with their LBers, ask their corners to simply just do a lot more than most other teams. Look at sacks, for instance...our CB's completely dominate. What does it mean? Well, for one, if you're blitzing corners, it means you are lumping even more responsibility on the other CB's/LB's to protect big chunks of your defensive backfield. I translate that to mean that high risk/high reward defensive gambles will skew CB numbers to look worse than they really are.