All time top 10 CB’s of all time

1. Rod Woodson
2. Mel Blount
3. Deion Sanders
4. Dayll Revis
5. Dick Night Train Lane
6. Chalres Woodson
7. Mike Hanyes
8. Darrell Green
9. Champ Bailey
10. Patrick Peterson

 

Jimmie Johnson who played for the 49ers back in the 60's was one of the best man to man coverage corners in NFL history. Also Lem Barney from the Lions is in my top ten. He was absolutely electric when he got his hands on the ball.

 

Seems you forgot JP Jr. We'll wait 10 years and hope he makes it way up the list.

 

Lem Barney. How the hell you remember him? You shook a cobweb loose in my brain. I never got into the Packers like some in the 60's. I was a youngster and if you shook right cobweb loose I recall he had an INT. his first game (?) against Bart Starr. As a young kid I loved him for that just to stick it in friends faces. Should have been loving the Steelers but a lot of my friends thought the Pack was da bomb. From that moment on he was one of my favorite non Pittsburgh sports player.

 

I was just thinking about who the great CB's were when I was a kid growing up and Lem Barney came to mind pretty quickly. His rookie year was insane picking off 10 passes and returning 3 to the house. You have a good memory too because I just looked up that Barney's first pick 6 was against Bart Starr in the first quarter of Lem's first NFL game.

 

You’re kidding right? The term “shut down corner” was invented to describe Deion Sanders. Even with his suspect tackling ability, he was dominated like Shaq did for the Lakers in the early 2000s; Like Roger Clemens (pre-Yankees) in the 90s. Deion defended the pass with the same skill that Rodman rebounded with.

 

Really. He was also known for being weak on the inside slant.

 

No Dick Lebeau.
Also Mel Blount is numero uno.

 

Sorry. Got to put Deion Sanders at the top of the list. Teams wouldn't even throw against him.

 

Mel Blount forced the NFL to change the rules on coverage. He's the best ever.

 

This.


I understand that Willie Wood, Willie Brown, Dick LeBeau and even the later stages of Night Train Lane were still heavily prominent in the 1960s but Jimmy Johnson's exclusion from any list definitely stings me a bit. As you stated, before players like Rod Woodson and even Deion Sanders were around... Jimmy J was the OG of Man Coverage. Unpopular opinion but to me, even today, Jimmy Johnson is one of the few players from that time period who could easily suit up in today's game with little to no difficulty as his overall man coverage chops were easily some of the greatest in NFL History.


Lem Barney is much of the same though he is short changed even more! Heading into the 1970s with Mel Blount, Willie Brown and even Roger Wehrli?! Oof.

 

Yep.


For me though, either or Night Train Lane, Rod Woodson or Mel Blount have compelling cases for number one. No wrong answer between the three imo.

 

Some people believe Darrelle Revis might be ranked too high but his 2009 Season is arguably the best ever of not just any Corner but I am willing to go so far as to any Defensive Player ever sans LT's 1986 MVP Campaign. Mind you, that is just Revis' 2009 Campaign alone; a good majority of his career being so damn memorable for the level of talent he faced that season was unrivaled or close to it as far as CBs go. I do have pushback on Night Train Lane not being within the Top Three as he is the grandaddy of the position in addition to revolutionizing the position he himself revolutionized already in addition to being the sole reason NFL Players have this thing called the facemask. Dude would just either clothesline or attempt to yank someone's face off!


Jimmy Johnson would be at 10 for me as I share the opinions of @Hanratty#5. Much like Bill Dudley, he was among the first of truly great 49ers players long before Joe Montana hit the field.

 

I never really know how to make a top ten. I just can never figure out which stats should weigh more than others and not to mention that game in the 60's was drastically different than today. Heck, even the game today is very much different than the 1990's. Regardless of how we do this, we're going to use some sort of bias, knowingly or unknowingly. We do seem to tend to favor players more from our teens than players of our adult years or players that came before us. All I know about Mel Blunt that he was very good and rules were changed because of him. But actually seeing him do his thing, naw I haven't.

 

I had forgotten about Roger Wehrli. The Cardinals had 2 all time greats in their secondary back then, Wehrli at CB and Larry Wilson at safety.

 

They absolutely did and quite successfully with the inside slant. They ran at him quite a bit as well. For as great as he was in coverage he was a liability against the run.

 

Ah yes.... "Wildcat Wilson"...


The games OG of the modern Defensive Back. Absolute legend.

 

This.

 

I was always baffled by the. Champ Bailey ranking. I just remember him getting exposed more than anything I guess.

 

The Steelers one year cut their leading tackler because teams just ran at him

Let alone considering him best ever or HOF

If you are a weak link you should not get accolades

 

I'd happily take a weak link who could cover like Sanders.

I really hate standing up for Sanders. He was and is such a selfish jackass.

 

Right now I would take Ike Taylor

I would not put him in the HOF or the above list

 

This. Although if Ike hung onto 1/3 of the passes He got His hands on... He maybe HOF worthy

 

Wait. Are you both saying you would take Ike Taylor over Deion Sanders?

(Steps away slowly before I get a contact high from whatever y'all ingested.)

 

Nope I’m not saying that