NFL 101 Part #3 - Defensive Backs
By: Schwartz
After taking a look at the most dominant and physical players NFL history has to offer, let’s move to the physical opposite within the sport - the quick and skillful players. Here are my top defensive backs of all time
Starters in Italics
Cornerbacks: Darrelle Revis, Deion Sanders, Night Train Lane, Mel Blount, Willie Brown, Rod Woodson, Charles Woodson (nickelback)
Additions: Revis, Woodson
Cuts: Darrell Green
It’s widely believed that wide receivers have the most swagger of anyone on a football field. What I personally believe is that shutting them down is a job meant for someone who can match or even top that level of swagger, and that dream becomes reality in the form of Deion Sanders. One of the ultimate no-brainers, Neon Deion is likely the best defensive back of all time and easily high-stepped his way into my lineup. As one of the best raw athletes in football history, running a 4.27-second 40-yard dash at the combine, Sanders was a threat in all phases of the game. He supplemented his 9 consecutive first-team All-Pro nods as a corner with separate selections as a kick returner, and then later a punt returner, roles in which he put up 9 touchdowns. His 53 interceptions on defense, including 10 pick-sixes, are paired with 60 receptions on offense, three of which he took to the house. Finally, my favorite Primetime stat - when he won his lone Defensive Player of the Year award, he was just two years removed from leading the MLB in triples despite playing in just 97 out of 162 games due to his commitment to football. Sanders is the only person to hit a professional home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week, and similarly, is the only athlete to compete in both a World Series and a Super Bowl, as he raised the Lombardi one time in each of Dallas and San Francisco. He did everything - on the gridiron, on the diamond, or off of both - with an effortless flair, and I think it’s extremely fair to say that we will never see another defender quite like Deion Sanders.
On the absolute other end of the spectrum, Darrelle Revis was a silent, cold-blooded killer. One of the very reasons that I wanted to write this article was the criminal omission of Revis off of the original team, and I feel that he has more than earned a spot not only in the top 100, but in the starting lineup. At his very best, Revis was quite literally untouchable. His career interception numbers, and as a result, his accolades, suffered from the fact that no quarterback had any intention of throwing the ball anywhere near him. A four-time first-team All-Pro, Revis “Island” would truly isolate even the best receivers and neutralize their threat for four quarters every single Sunday. After terrorizing them for so many years, he finally crossed enemy lines to join the New England Patriots and lead the defense of perhaps the very best of their 6 teams to win a Super Bowl. Although polar opposites, both of these star corners got the job done and made it frustratingly hard for any offense to move the ball through the air.
I’m not going to pretend that there’s not a little personal sentiment sneaking into this post. I go to Michigan, Charles Woodson is our best player ever (best college player, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten TB12, we’ll get there), so naturally I was pretty pissed off that the league left out one of the most versatile DBs of all time. Of course his stunning two-way college accomplishments aren’t part of the criteria for his list, but he continued to make an impact as a returner in his NFL career. When the physical abilities that made him a four-time first-team All-Pro corner began to fade, he seamlessly transitioned to safety for his return to Oakland, where he was able to actually pick up one last second-team All-Pro nod in his final season. A champion and a class act, I couldn’t leave him off of my roster. In fact, he snuck his way into the lineup, the last “starter” as the nickelback, the defense’s 13th man.
Rod Woodson and Mel Blount were two shutdown corners I looked at for this spot, as was safety Ed Reed, and frankly all three of these players probably have higher upside than Charles Woodson. However, the former forever Wolverine’s versatility makes him the right choice for a role that requires a player to slide into multiple different assignments on a wide range of offensive players. Of course, Woodson’s addition meant I had to leave someone else off, and that unlucky player had to be Darrell Green. This was truly one of the most disputable decisions in this entire exercise, but the former Man of the Year, and a huge part of the best Redskins teams of all time, got squeezed off by the absolute finest of margins. This is a highly exclusive club, and some of the very best players of all time will have to be left out.
Safeties: Ronnie Lott, Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, Emlen Tunnell, Larry Wilson, Earl Thomas, Ken Houston
Additions: Polamalu, Thomas
Cuts: Jack Christiansen
I’d like to start out by saying that, while he is a phenomenal player, Troy Polamalu is not who I consider to be the second-best safety of all time. However, he is the player I believe to be the best true strong safety of all time, and I intend for this starting lineup to have appropriate positional fits wherever possible, and that is how Troy finds himself in the lineup. Which brings me to the discussion of why I not only vetoed the NFL’s decision to leave the newly-minted Hall of Famer out of the team, but elevated him all the way into the starting lineup. Troy held a prominent role on the Steelers’ two championship defenses, in which he was equally likely to drop back and defend a pass as he was to bust through, or literally over the offensive line. This provided a blueprint and defined the modern strong safety, a position that is vital to almost every successful modern defense, featuring stars such as the Legion of Boom’s Kam Chancellor or Jets phenom Jamal Adams. Troy earns a spot on this list and in the lineup not only for his significant personal accomplishments, which include six All-Pro seasons (four first-team) and a Defensive Player of the Year award - he’s here because of his impact on the game. And on offensive players’ rib cages, because that dude could really really hit.
The other starting safety on my defense, the free safety, is the guy I actually do believe is the best safety of all time, and that player is Ronnie Lott. There’s no way to describe Lott, who had his broken pinkie amputated in order to reduce recovery time, as anything other than a different breed. It’s also worth noting that in his first pinkie-less season he set a career high in picks despite missing two games. He was the safety behind one of the NFL’s greatest dynasties, as he won 4 Super Bowls with the 49ers. Not only was he one of the toughest open-field tacklers in league history, his ball-hawking skills were nearly unparalleled, as was his clutch gene. Those two factors allowed him to pick off a ridiculous nine passes in 20 career postseason appearances. These two safeties together would create serious problems for an offense in both the offensive and defensive backfields, and generate a lot of confusion. They’re a duo I absolutely love in my starting lineup.
Another modern safety that needs to be recognized is Earl Thomas. The team’s other All-Pro stud, Richard Sherman’s brash, vocal presence, often led to him being seen as the leader of the Seahawks’ historic “Legion of Boom” secondary. Still, many pundits, players, and members of the Seahawks organization consider Thomas to be the keystone of their dominant defensive back corps. His individual greatness was often overshadowed by the fantastic defense he was a part of, leading to him only being a first-team All-Pro three times thus far. Still, I believe that it would be unfair to not recognize his leading role in a secondary that shut down high-powered air attacks in an offensive-minded, and specifically pass-first, age of football. His feel for the game makes him a truly perfect safety, as it contributed to the dominant run that led to him earning a place on this list. His addition means the loss of Lions great Jack Christiansen, who simply did not play long enough (8 seasons) to retain his spot on my roster. Furthermore, his role as a pass defender in an extremely run-heavy era, the 1950s, did not help his case.
