Breaking Down the NFL's Best Ballhawks

Few NFL players have a knack for being around the ball at all times. Most are well-known and game-planned against, but there are a select few who come like a thief in the night and cause headaches year after year for opposing offenses.

We will count down the five best ball hawks in the NFL. The stats are compiled from 2009 through 2011, compliments of Pro Football Focus. In place is a 2,500 minimum snap threshold, which helped weed out undeserving players.

The ratio being examined is the number of snaps to the number of forced turnovers (interceptions plus forced fumbles).

5. Leon Hall

Over the past two years, Leon Hall's coverage skills have been on the decline ever since his incredible 2009 campaign that had him as a top-five cover corner. But the one thing he hasn't lost is his ability to bait the quarterback and jar the ball loose.

He has accounted for one forced turnover every 162 snaps, which translates into 12 interceptions and four forced fumbles over a three-year span. His ratio had the potential to be that much better as his 2011 campaign was cut short due to injury. 

Lets take a look at an interception from Week 3 of the 2010 season:

Pre-snap, Hall is lined up opposite of Steve Smith in man, off-coverage. 

As soon as the ball is snapped, he comes up to bump Smith, who easily slides off his outside shoulder, putting Hall in the trail position.

Despite being in the trail position, he makes a full recovery, which allows him to display his quickness by laying out and intercepting the pass.

There is one ultimate question that looms: Will Hall be able to make plays of this caliber going forward? Achilles injuries spell the end of the road for some players. 

4. Jairus Byrd

It's very rare for a player to experience rookie success like Jairus Byrd did in 2009. Out of his 13 career interceptions, he tallied nine of them in his first season.

Even though his interception numbers have dropped off, it hasn't stopped him from wreaking havoc on ball carriers. He has notched three forced fumbles each of the last two years after not recording any his rookie season. With 19 career forced turnovers, Byrd causes the opposing team to cough the ball up once every 138 snaps. 

In Week 5 of the 2011 season, Byrd shows off his physical nature against the Eagles:

As you can see in the video above, Byrd enjoys imposing his will on the field. At times he can be a bit of a gambler, but what ball-hawking safety isn't?

3. Charles Tillman

Just as a fine wine gets better with age, the same could be said for Charles Tillman. At the age of 31 he is arguably coming of the best three-year stretch of his career.

Thirteen forced fumbles and 11 interceptions are impressive considering he's logged over 3,200 snaps in that three-year stretch. Most players' production would start to tail off as the snap counts increase. Tillman just continues to keep on proving himself by taking the ball away from opponents once out of every 134 snaps.

Charles Tillman beat up on Matthew Stafford and company by intercepting a pass and taking it to the house for six:

Pre-snap, Tillman is playing press coverage on Calvin Johnson.

As you can see here, Tillman gets a great jam off the line—about as good as you can get against Calvin Johnson. 

While Tillman is tied up with Johnson, he's looking back at Stafford, reading his eyes. As he peeks back at Stafford, Tillman releases Johnson and makes a break on the poorly thrown ball. The result is six points the other way for the Bears' defense. 

2. Ed Reed

When you hear the word ball hawk, you instantly think of Ed Reed; he practically coined the term. Reed is a player who has done so much for the game and transformed the safety position. Just like Charles Tillman, he is still on top of his game as he enters his mid 30s.

From 2009-2011, he has accounted for a total of 22 forced turnovers while only playing 2,888 snaps, which calculates out to about one turnover forced every 131 snaps. It wouldn't take much to argue that he may quite possibly be the best ball hawk of all time. 

Not really much of a breakdown for this play—it's simply Ed Reed being Ed Reed. It's one of the most athletic plays I've seen, and he shows incredible range.

1. Charles Woodson

Were you really surprised that Charles Woodson was No. 1 on the list? As soon as Woodson arrived in Green Bay, it's like the light went on and someone hit the reset button. Not to discredit his time in Oakland, but joining the Packers was the best thing that ever happened to him.

He became an instant turnover machine; before joining the Packers he had 17 interceptions and nine forced fumbles. Since joining the Packers, he has had 37 interceptions and 14 forced fumbles. Not to mention he spent more time in Oakland than he has in Green Bay.

There was no one who even came close to his forced turnover rate as he produced 28 combined turnovers on 3,346 snaps. One turnover forced every 119 snaps is quite the feat. 

Charles Woodson reads Matthew Stafford like a book on this second-down play:

Woodson is lined up in the slot across from Nate Burleson. 

After the ball has been snapped, Woodson sits down in his zone responsibility and watches Stafford's every move.

As Stafford begins to wind up, Woodson starts to break on the ball and comes over the top of Brandon Pettigrew's shoulder to intercept the pass. It looks as if Pettigrew catches it, and Woodson takes it away from him.

This brilliant play demonstrates why Woodson is the best ball-hawker in the NFL right now.