Beef Between Deion Sanders and Richard Sherman

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Richard Sherman is having a tremendous season. This may come as a shocking revelation during a week when the vulnerability of the Seahawks defense is the official big story.

Did yous see Dez Bryant's 23-grand reception against Sherman to set upward a touchdown? What about Bryant's jump ball over Sherman on third-and-5 in the fourth quarter? Sherman needed pass interference to stop him on some other serial. What about Sherman's big mistakes in the Chargers loss? Confront it: HE IS Not A SHUTDOWN CORNERBACK.

Darrelle Revis is having a tremendous season. This may come up as a shock afterward weeks of fretting about the downfall of the Patriots.

Did you see Sammy Watkins pause him down for a 24-grand catch near the goal line Lord's day? What near all the problem he had confronting James Jones in the Raiders game? The guy has i interception and three passes defensed all year, for heaven'south sake. Totally overrated. HE IS NOT A SHUTDOWN CORNERBACK.

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Patrick Peterson is having a very skillful season.

OK, await. Timeout. Are you serious? He allowed two touchdowns against the Redskins! DeSean Jackson blew by him like a Mustang beating an water ice cream truck off a carmine light. Every other Cardinals defender BUT Peterson had a great game Lord's day. Face it: HE IS Non A SHUTDOWN CORNERBACK.

Cue Inigo Montoya from The Princess Helpmate: "You continue using that word. I practise not think it means what you think it means."

If your definition of "shutdown cornerback" is some magical superhero who never allows a reception and essentially constructs a 30-foot-high wall beyond ane half of the field, and then y'all are right: Sherman, Revis and Peterson are not shutdown cornerbacks.

If "shutdown cornerback" is just a defensive version of "elite quarterback," a sideswiping weapon in your everyone in the NFL is overrated armory, so no facts volition go in the way of the story anyway.

But if y'all are looking for great cornerbacks, Pro Bowl-quotient cornerbacks, cornerbacks who influence opponents' strategy and cornerbacks who can make a major divergence in the playoff race, then Sherman, Revis and Peterson fit the description.

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And then here's a shocking revelation: The cornerbacks anybody says are keen are, in fact, neat. Even when they give up a touchdown, or their team loses a game.

For Cornerbacks, Not-Highlights Are Highlights

The Cowboys threw half dozen passes to Richard Sherman'south side of the field, according to my tally.

One pass resulted in an interference punishment. Two others were mentioned at the start of the article: 23- and 16-yard completions to Dez Bryant. 3 others were incomplete passes to Bryant: a flop where Sherman disrupted Bryant'due south pattern with a jam; tight coverage on a comeback route on 3rd-and-long; and a late-game sideline laissez passer where Tony Romo had no window and forced his throw out of bounds.

So Bryant, one of the two or three best receivers in the NFL, defenseless two passes for 41 yards and forced i flag against Sherman. No other Cowboys broad receiver was thrown to with Sherman in coverage, though there were some passes into the apartment in front of him.

As bad days go, Sherman's afternoon against Dallas was pretty darn good.

The Cowboys' big passing plays came against Byron Maxwell or nickel corner Marcus Burley, and of course they did their greatest damage on the ground. Bryant often lined up on the left side of the germination or in the slot to avert Sherman early on in the game. That's exactly what opponents are supposed to do against a peachy cornerback: adapt their game plans to avert the dangerous defender.

Mike Groll/Associated Printing

Revis allowed Watkins to catch simply one meaningful laissez passer Sunday; the rookie star was nearly invisible equally the Bills did what footling impairment they could manage with Robert Woods and tight end Scott Chandler.

Peterson gave up a slant-and-go touchdown to Jackson and got rubbed on a touchdown to Pierre Garcon. They were the only significant plays he immune all afternoon. Nickelback Jerraud Powers and safe Rashad Johnson combined for three interceptions and a forced fumble.

Ask yourself: Why were Powers and Johnson getting and so many opportunities?

This is what swell cornerbacks do. They funnel plays to other defenders by blanketing their receivers. They dissuade quarterbacks from throwing to their side of the field. And yes, sometimes they lose matchups to the likes of Dez Bryant or DeSean Jackson, whom they often draw in single coverage, or become victimized by a well-designed pick play.

It only takes a touchdown, a few receptions allowed or a poor team defensive performance for an All-Pro cornerback to attract criticism. Sherman brings much of it upon himself with his constant Twitter chirping. Revis has not been able to requite upwardly a catch for 2 years without every wise guy at the sports bar pointing at the screen.

You see that? He did information technology once again! That was the third fourth dimension I pointed Mr. Island Guy out this month!

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Peterson gets a intermission because the Cardinals become largely unnoticed by the world at large. Merely after Rueben Randle defenseless a one-handed back-of-the-stop-zone fade when the Cardinals faced the Giants, color commentator John Lynch made certain to indicate Peterson out. "How near going right after Patrick Peterson, i of the effectively corners in football game?"

Later, when Peterson hooked Victor Cruz's shoulder to earn laissez passer interference on otherwise outstanding deep coverage, the announcers chimed in once again.

"The Giants go subsequently their top corner once more and succeed," Kevin Burkhardt said.

"Eli Manning told us in meetings that he would not shy away from Patrick Peterson...I don't call back Peterson's used to information technology. He'due south used to people going the other style, and they're getting after him," added Lynch.

Cruz and Randle combined for nine catches, 99 yards and one highlight-reel touchdown in a 25-14 loss. Peterson allowed a few other short catches and drew two more contact fouls, but he must accept been doing something right during all of those other plays when the announcers were not singling him out.

That's the trouble with great cornerbacks: They are invisible when they succeed, unless the broadcasters get together one of those "tight coverage" montages that are typically reserved for Revis. To really capeesh nifty cornerbacks, you lot have to lookout man them, keeping in mind that one-handed, leaping, sideline-tightrope catches are often show of great coverage, peachy coverage.

You tin besides wait at the stats. Those, too, crave a trained eye.

Numbers Never Lie simply Are Often Very Quiet

The Seahawks had the best laissez passer defense in the NFL against opponents' No. 1 wide receivers inbound the Cowboys game, according to Football Outsiders. Opponents averaged merely vi.7 pass attempts and 39 yards per game when throwing to their top targets. Bryant's 4-grab performance will increase those numbers slightly. The Patriots rank ninth against superlative receivers, the Cardinals a surprising 19th.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

Sherman, of course, does non friction match upwardly against opponents' acme receivers all the time, nor does Peterson. Both play left cornerback, so they spend most of their time defending the offensive right side of the field. So we turn to NFL GSIS (a firewall site) to larn something well-nigh play directions.

Opponents have thrown 49 short passes to the correct against the Seahawks, the tertiary-lowest full in the NFL. They have thrown just 11 deep passes to Sherman's side, seventh in the NFL. Offenses tend to be somewhat right-handed—nigh xiv percent more passes are thrown to the left than to the correct in a typical season—but not against the Seahawks.

Opponents accept been quicker to challenge Peterson, in function considering he at present has Antonio Cromartie opposite him. But xvi deep passes to the right against the Cardinals take yielded simply two completions. Once again: Someone is doing something right.

For a more defender-centric approach, we turn to Pro Football game Focus (subscription required). Sherman earns a light-green iii.five "all is going well" score in their overall rankings, Revis a nevertheless-green ii.2, Peterson a dark cherry-red negative-4.1 reprimand, largely because of those penalties in the Giants game.

The meat of the Pro Football Focus defensive assay does not lie with their red-dark-green scouting data, which only counts plays the cornerback was directly involved in. Evaluating cornerbacks is all about negative space, the plays they didn't take to make, and those can exist establish on the far right sides of the PFF columns, where the number of times each defender was targeted are tabulated.

Sherman has been on the field for 353 snaps but has been targeted just 20 times. He is tied for the fewest targets in the NFL among defenders who have been on the field for 60 percentage or more than of their team'southward defensive snaps. Revis has been targeted 27 times in 367 snaps, tied for eighth lowest in the NFL with the Cardinals' Peterson (327 snaps) and Cromartie (319).

The "cornerbacks opponents avert" listing is full of other well-regarded defenders like Joe Haden, Sean Smith, Vontae Davis and Captain Munnerlyn, also as up-and-comers like Desmond Trufant and veterans having good years on bad teams similar Tarell Brown.

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

Get the picture? Opponents really do avoid the meridian cornerbacks.

Become back to 2013, and you'll find Sherman and Revis last and second-from-last in times targeted among starters; Peterson sits almost the heart of the pack, but with fine scouting ratings.

The most targeted starter last season was Jerraud Powers, who was in the crosshairs 122 times. Powers held his own equally a starter in 2013 and has been a star as a nickel defender this year. A quick await at the whole stat sheet reveals why:

2014 Cornerback Statistics
Player	Snaps	Targets	Receptions
Peterson	327	27	17
Cromartie	318	27	12
Powers	276	43	26
Pro Football Focus

Powers is intercepting passes considering he is getting disproportionately targeted. Let's run the numbers for the Seahawks:

2014 Cornerback Statistics
Actor	Snaps	Targets	Receptions
Sherman	353	20	ten
Maxwell	296	34	25
Burley	213	31	23
Pro Football Focus

The numbers are non equally extreme for the Patriots, who have been juggling corners opposite Revis, just the trend is the same. Opponents are targeting the other cornerbacks. Powers has reaped a turnover bonanza, Burley and Maxwell have struggled, just the superstar cornerbacks have held upwards their terminate of the bargain.

Unfortunately, we needed three statistical outlets to assist usa tease the data. PFF buries the good stuff at the back of its tables, Football Outsiders provides opponent adjustments but few defender-by-defender breakdowns, and NFL GSIS is media-only.

You don't need a math degree to practise the detective work that proves the NFL's best cornerbacks are as skillful every bit advertised, simply it helps. Sometimes, your best bet is to just believe the hype, at to the lowest degree a little bit: The "experts" who proclaim players similar Sherman and Revis to be All-Pro-caliber might actually know what they are talking about.

Every bit for that "shutdown cornerback"? He never existed. Non fifty-fifty in the golden days of Prime Time.

Deion Sanders Was Not a Shutdown Cornerback

One time upon a fourth dimension, there was a cornerback named Deion Sanders. He never gave up a reception, and whatever pass thrown to his side of the field was returned for a touchdown. Teams gave upward throwing to their height receivers when they faced Sanders for an unabridged decade, making life incredibly easy for his teammates.

Sanders was, of course, a fabulous cornerback, one of the best in NFL history. He also played before NFL Game Rewind, Twitter or Bleacher Report, making it easier for his exploits to go folktales.

There was no Pro Football Focus or Football Outsiders back then to scour the game footage, just Football game Outsiders has been collecting old play-by-play data for years. So we now accept some statistical assay of Sanders and the teams he played for.

Gauge what? Sanders was not very different from Revis or Sherman at all.

Ric Feld/Associated Press

Sanders reached the Pro Bowl for the Falcons for the first time in 1991. He was then a Pro Bowler (typically All-Pro) every year until 1999 with the Cowboys, except for injury-shortened 1995.

Football Outsiders tabulated league pass defense force rankings for those seasons; the numbers are far superior to raw passing yardage totals because they business relationship for sacks, interceptions, completion rates and situational adjustments (like late drives in blowouts).

Here is where Sanders' teams ranked:

Squad Pass Defense Rankings
Year	Team	Pass Defense Rank
1992	Falcons	28th
1993	Falcons	27th
1994	49ers	third
1996	Cowboys	second
1997	Cowboys	17th
1998	Cowboys	27th
1999	Cowboys	12th
Football Outsiders

Football game Outsiders starts breaking down laissez passer defense by opponent'southward targets in 1999, Sanders' last Pro Bowl season. The Cowboys ranked 25th in the league at stopping No. 1 receivers, allowing an adjusted 73.1 yards per game. Assuming Sanders' fade was gradual (nagging injuries had been limiting him for years), Dallas stopped ranking in the top five at stopping No. 1 receivers not long after 1996.

That'south not an interception, it's a reception! RON HEFLIN/Associated Press

If Sanders had to bargain with the 21st-century news cycle in his all-time seasons, his narrative would exist: A) buzzy player on a bad defense force for the Falcons; so B) superstar for 49ers and 1996 Cowboys, like Sherman in 2012-13 and Revis from 2009-11; then C) a long wind-down full of accusations of existence overrated as the Cowboys slowly deteriorated.

But Sanders most certainly earned each and every ane of those Pro Bowl appearances. He was yet a useful nickel defender when he came out of retirement at age 37. Evaluating pass defence is complicated: Not only must you comb through the game film and play-by-play for passes that were never thrown, but you have to account for the quality of the opponent, the laissez passer blitz, the scheme and the other defenders.

Sherman and Peterson have each faced Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers already. The Cardinals blitz wildly, while the Seahawks play vanilla and the Patriots groove to head omnibus Nib Belichick'south unpredictable beats. Cromartie makes Peterson easy to claiming, while Maxwell makes Sherman piece of cake to avert.

Going back 20 years, Sanders went from a bad organization that constantly faced the Jerry Rice 49ers to a pair of outstanding teams, the second of which crumbled around him, taking much of the analytic evidence of his greatness along for the ride.

If Deion Sanders looks ordinary under shut exam, Revis, Sherman or Peterson don't stand a chance.

None of these cornerbacks is ordinary. It'southward our expectations that are out of whack. Great cornerbacks do non have to earn shutdown condition any more than than a cracking quarterback needs to be dubbed elite by a jury of my peers. They do not accept to exist perfect. They only must make expert defenses great and pb them to Super Bowls.

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Prime Time and Sherman accept already done that. Revis and Peterson have the potential to exercise it. Other cornerbacks similar Haden, Davis and Aqib Talib can still join the conversation.

It's not most labels, perfection or magic—it's about reality. Sherman, Revis and Peterson are actually, really good. If we shut down all the nonsense near shutdown cornerbacks, nosotros can appreciate merely how much they are capable of.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.

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Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2230094-sherman-revis-peterson-primetime-and-the-myth-of-the-shutdown-cornerback

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