We continue our offseason rankings series with a look at the NFL’s top 10 cover men.
1. Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks — For the fourth consecutive season, opposing quarterbacks completed fewer than half of their passes and had a combined passer rating below 60.0 when throwing at Sherman, who was yet again a first-team All-Pro.
2. Darrelle Revis, New York Jets — The man was lights-out down the stretch for the Super Bowl champs, but still seems as though the 30-year-old has lost a tiny step and Sherman still put together a stronger body of work in 2014.
3. Vontae Davis, Indianapolis Colts — Opposing quarterbacks completed just 43.7 percent of their passes and had a combined passer rating of just 38.8 when throwing Davis’ way.
4. Chris Harris, Denver Broncos — After allowing opposing quarterbacks to put up a combined passer rating of just 47.8 when throwing his way, the 26-year-old former undrafted free agent was graded by Pro Football Focus as the best cornerback in football last season. He also took fewer penalties than Davis, but Davis has been a little better for a little longer.
5. Patrick Peterson, Arizona Cardinals — The 2013 first-team All-Pro just wasn’t himself in 2014. Less than 100 percent for much of the year, he surrendered eight touchdowns in coverage and drew a negative PFF grade. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they hurt Peterson here.
6. Brent Grimes, Miami Dolphins — Back-to-back Pro Bowl nods for the veteran, who has nine interceptions in two seasons since jumping from Atlanta to Miami.
7. Aqib Talib, Denver Broncos — A great all-around defender, Talib has eight picks in his last two seasons (both Pro Bowl campaigns) and he came up huge in the season for Denver.
8. Joe Haden, Cleveland Browns — Haden has also become a shutdown corner over the course of back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons. He has seven interceptions during that span.
9. Alterraun Verner, Tampa Bay Buccaneers — The 2013 Pro Bowler took a step back during his first season with the Bucs, but Verner was still graded by PFF as the seventh-best corner in football. It helps that he’s a stellar run-defender.
10. Josh Norman, Carolina Panthers — Posterized often early in his career, Norman has completely turned it around. In fact, during the second half of the 2014 campaign, opposing quarterbacks completed only 41.3 percent of their passes in his direction.
