• D.J. Reed is the highest-graded cornerback in the NFL: The Jets corner boasts an impressive 30% forced incompletion rate and has allowed only 0.65 yards per cover snap. Notably, he has given up just two catches of over 15 yards this season.
• Christian Benford continues his excellent season: Benford continues to lock down receivers in coverage at an extremely high rate. He ranks first in SCOE, positive grade rate and Lockdown Percentage, while sitting third in advanced coverage grade and fourth in EPA allowed per target. Any way you look at it, Benford has been outstanding in 2024.
• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full access to all our in-season fantasy tools, including weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and more. Sign up now!
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
If quarterback is the most important position on the football field, then limiting the effectiveness of that player is the most important thing a defense can do. A team can do this in two ways: It can pressure the passer to disrupt his timing, rhythm and accuracy, or it can shut down the opposing receivers.
Each week, after every NFL game is graded and reviewed, PFF will check in on the top cornerbacks of the 2024 season.
Last year, these rankings combined PFF coverage grades with our Successful Coverage Over Expected (SCOE) metric, which measures how well each coverage defender performed on non-targeted coverage snaps. We grade every coverage defender’s ability to prevent separation, whether they are targeted on the play or not.
These rankings will utilize that same data this year but with play-level normalization and expectation adjustments. Matching up with a receiver is more difficult than covering running back, and playing man coverage is typically more difficult than matching in a zone.
Here are the top 32 cornerbacks for the 2024 season heading into Week 8.
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