NFL 1000: Ranking the Best Ball Hawks

There are many ways to measure a defensive back's success in the NFL. Vikings cornerback Terence Newman allowed a 62.0 passer rating last season, fifth-best in the league (and not bad for a 38-year-old), but he had just one interception in 427 passing snaps. That doesn't mean Newman "failed" in coverage; he shut down his receivers exceptionally—especially from the slot—and he couldn't take advantage of interception opportunities.

On the other side of the equation, there's the Dolphins' Tony Lippett. Looking at the NFL's traditional statistics, you'd say the second-year man from Michigan State had a fine season, and for the most part, he did. No cornerback who has four interceptions and 10 passes defensed is a liability. But Lippett's interception total masked that he gave up an 87.6 quarterback rating and allowed five touchdowns.

When we discuss the NFL's true ball hawks, we're not just talking about interceptions, though they're certainly valuable. We're including passes defensed and the overall quality of coverage. We're also talking about consistent excellence from year to year, and that's hard to maintain. Creating multiple turnovers in a given year is an unpredictable thing, as it doesn't just depend on a player's individual skills.

There are the quarterbacks and receivers you face. There's the quality of the pass defenders around you. There can be scheme changes, in which cornerbacks who are best at aggressive press coverage are told to play off their man, and safeties who are most effective as lone center fielders but have to play in more restricted concepts.

So, for this list of the NFL's best ball hawks, I went back over the last three seasons to determine who's been most consistent in turnover creation and pass deflection. Taking the ball out of the receiver's hands and putting it into your own, or out of the play altogether, is one of the most valuable skills in the league, whether you're an outside cornerback, a slot cornerback or a safety.

Here are the 10 players who have done it best over time.

All advanced stats courtesy of Pro Football Focus and PFF Elite unless otherwise indicated.

Notable Omissions

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In any list, there will be those who barely missed the cut. Here are three defenders who didn't make this list and the reasons for it.

Mike Adams, S, Carolina Panthers

Adams put up 12 interceptions over his last three years with the Colts, including five each in 2014 and 2015. Both were Pro Bowl seasons for the veteran, but his interception total dropped to two in 2016. At age 36 and with a new team, he'll still be valuable, but his optimal ball-hawk days might be behind him.

Quintin Demps, S, Chicago Bears

Given the quality of his work over the last three seasons with the Giants and Texans, it was tough to leave Demps off the list. If this were a top 11, he'd be on it. As a late bloomer who didn't start a game through his first five seasons, Demps has 11 picks over the last three seasons, including six in 2016. He'll be a much-needed presence in a Bears secondary that will take all the help it can get. If he's able to come close to last year's six-pick season as opposed to the one pick in 2015, he could break the top 10.

Vontae Davis, CB, Indianapolis Colts

Davis ran into recency bias here, as his injury-plagued 2016 season had him intercepting just one pass. However, he has nine picks total in the last three seasons, and in that time, no defensive back has more passes defensed than Davis' 53.

10. Glover Quin, S, Detroit Lions

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Glover Quin has been one of the better deep-coverage safeties in the league for years. The veteran played the deep third of the field with cornerback-level quickness and agility from 2009 to 2012 with the Texans, and certainly during his tenure with the Lions, which began when he signed a five-year, $23.5 million deal in 2013.

He had just two picks last season but allowed only 253 yards on 23 catches—a rather impressive total for a deep defender. Over the last three years, he has 13 interceptions and 20 passes defensed, and he led the NFL in picks in 2014 with seven.

Quin can play the slot and provide linebacker depth, but he's at his best when he's reading the quarterback from the deepest part of Detroit's coverage. He can start as the top deep safety in a Cover 1 or Cover 3 scheme and move to either side of the field as quickly as any receiver on a deep route.

Quin's interception of Marcus Mariota in Week 2 last year is an optimal example—he started in center field, read the play-action fake perfectly and capped the top of the deep route from Rishard Matthews. Then, at the last second, he jumped the route—ran right in front of it—for the interception.

In his Week 13 interception of Drew Brees, Quin was in a two-deep safety look, waited for the route concepts to develop downfield, and then, when he read that Brees was throwing near the sideline to Brandin Cooks, he timed his move perfectly to get in front of the pass to pick it off.

And that's what makes Quin so good at his job: He's not just a speed guy; he's a field-smart opportunist who understands timing and angles. At times, he seems to understand receiver routes as well as the receivers.

9. Casey Hayward, CB, Los Angeles Chargers

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Casey Hayward has 10 interceptions and 34 passes defensed over the last three seasons, and that total would be higher if he didn't run into injury and scheme issues in 2015, his final year with the Packers. He had no picks in that season, but he intercepted three passes in 2014 as a hybrid cornerback who could move between the slot and outside.

The Chargers got a major bargain when they signed him to a three-year, $15.3 million deal in March 2016, and like most bargains, the move was predicated on putting the player in the optimal situation. The Chargers did that by throwing out the hybrid designation and asking him to be a shutdown outside cornerback.

That was not a problem for Hayward, who led the NFL with seven interceptions and became the Chargers' No. 1 cornerback by default when Jason Verrett was lost for the year to a torn ACL in October. According to Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus, only Arizona's Patrick Peterson had more coverage snaps against opposing No. 1 receivers than Hayward's 241, and Hayward was highly effective against all opponents.

His 53.4 opposing quarterback rating ranked third in the league behind Minnesota's Xavier Rhodes and Denver's Aqib Talib, and he allowed just one touchdown against those seven interceptions.

Now that he's established as a dominant outside cornerback in the right scheme, don't be surprised if Hayward continues to be one of the NFL's best ball hawks and shutdown defenders.

8. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, CB, New York Giants

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There was some talk that Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie might find his way off the Giants roster in 2017 due to his $8.5 million cap hit, per ESPN.com's Jordan Raanan, but it's more likely that he'll stick around in the short term, because it's hard to replace guys with an eye for the ball. And over the last three seasons, few have been better at that than DRC, who has 11 interceptions and 46 passes defensed in that span.

More impressively, Rodgers-Cromartie expanded his role in 2016 by playing the slot more often as the Giants transitioned their outside starters after the acquisition of former Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins and 2016 first-round pick Eli Apple. When the Giants went with their base nickel package, Rodgers-Cromartie was great both inside and outside, allowing 48 catches on 86 targets for just two touchdowns and six picks.

At age 31, Rodgers-Cromartie still has the raw downfield speed to track faster receivers both outside and in the slot, and he can cover half the field in a hurry to help in deep zone coverage. He's not especially physical at the line of scrimmage, but he's an excellent tracker on short breaking routes, and he'll consistently get his hand in to swat the ball away at the end of a route.

Is your third cornerback worth a big cap hit? In today's NFL, and when that third cornerback plays at Rodgers-Cromartie's level, the answer is an affirmative yes.

7. Stephon Gilmore, CB, New England Patriots

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Stephon Gilmore picked off just three passes in his first two seasons with the Bills, but over the last three years, he has 11 interceptions—tied for fifth in the NFL—and 36 pass deflections. 2016 was his best season from a turnover perspective. He had five interceptions and allowed 41 receptions on 68 targets for 638 yards and two touchdowns.

That yardage total started a bit of a "down year" narrative after Gilmore signed a five-year, $65 million contract with the Patriots in March, but New England has historically succeeded with cornerbacks who had schematic issues on other teams.

When watching Gilmore's tape, his attributes are clear. While he occasionally will get lost at the top of a route against faster receivers making quick cuts, Gilmore has the recovery speed to make up for it. And even when he's not intercepting a pass, he's got a great knack for cutting toward the play and breaking it up at the last moment—even when the ball is already in the receiver's hands.

He also understands and can execute the subtleties of the position. Watch him close on a receiver quickly and get aggressive to stop the catch without drawing flags. He does it all the time.

"It's an honor to play under Coach [Bill] Belichick," Gilmore said in March, per Doug Kyed of NESN.com. "Coming in, watching from afar, obviously I've played against them a lot. They find a way to win so that's one thing you've got to respect about them. But it starts over every year, so I'm just looking forward to going in and meeting my teammates, learning from the coaches, and learning from the players and being the best team that we can be."

Gilmore will likely be the best cornerback he can be under Belichick, and he has the raw tools to be one of the best in the NFL.

6. Brent Grimes, CB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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Brent Grimes isn't one of the league's prominent names—he's probably best known for his wife Miko's NSFW Twitter rants—but there's no question that over the last few seasons, both with the Dolphins from 2013 through 2015, and with the Buccaneers last year, he's been one of the more effective cornerbacks in the NFL, and certainly one of the better turnover machines. Grimes made the Pro Bowl each of his last three seasons in Miami, coming up with 13 interceptions during that time, and he picked off four passes for the Bucs last season.

Over the last three years, only Raiders safety Reggie Nelson, Panthers safety Kurt Coleman and Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters have more interceptions than Grimes' 13. Expand that to a four-year stretch, and only Nelson and Seattle's Richard Sherman have more picks than Grimes' 17.

Not too shabby for an undrafted guy out of Shippensburg University who will turn 34 in July.

Grimes is just 5'10", but he's got the vertical leaping ability to contest catches against receivers much taller than he is. His legendary 2014 interception against Calvin Johnson is the most prominent example of that.

Grimes still has that leaping ability, and he's got a lot more to offer. He's got a smooth backpedal, which allows him to play off-coverage without getting caught up on comebacks and angular routes, and he's still fast enough to deal with speed receivers in the slot and outside. He closes to the ball quickly and aggressively, and he's great at baiting quarterbacks into thinking the receiver he's targeting is open—only to find out differently when Grimes jumps the route.

While he did allow five touchdowns last season, he still makes this list because he's been such a consistent interception machine, and even with those scores allowed, quarterbacks targeting him still only saw 50 completions in 91 targets.    

5. Aqib Talib, CB, Denver Broncos

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When the Patriots traded for Aqib Talib in 2012, it was the start of a transformation that saw the Kansas alum start to understand that if he combined a more consistent field sense with his impressive physical gifts, he could be one of the NFL's best at his position. And over the last few seasons, that's what Talib has become. With the Broncos over the last three years, he's been as good a combination of a shutdown corner and ball hawk as any team could ask for.

Talib has 14 interceptions over the last four seasons, and that's not all: Once he gets the ball in his hands, a touchdown is quite possible. He has five total interception-return touchdowns over the last three years. Moreover, he wasn't giving anything up even when he wasn't catching the attempts of opposing quarterbacks.

In 2016, Talib was the only No. 1 cornerback in the NFL who didn't allow a touchdown in the regular season, giving up just 35 catches on 66 targets for 351 yards and three interceptions. Only Minnesota's Xavier Rhodes (47.0) allowed a lower opponent passer rating than Talib's 49.5.

Now, he has combined with fellow Kansas alum Chris Harris to form the best starting cornerback duo in the league.

Always a gambler, Talib has the ability to trail any receiver from the line of scrimmage (where he's an aggressive press defender in either man or zone coverage), and he has a special gift for giving his receiver just enough room to make the quarterback think he has an open target.

When Talib is in coverage, that target usually isn't. Instead Talib will converge on the ball at the last moment and disrupt the play.   

4. Kurt Coleman, S, Carolina Panthers

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Kurt Coleman isn't one of the bigger names in the league, but you'd be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of defenders with a better eye for the ball in recent years. Over the last three seasons, Coleman is tied with Marcus Peters for second in the league with 14 picks; only Oakland safety Reggie Nelson has more (17). Last season, he allowed just 23 catches on 34 targets for 265 yards and one touchdown to four interceptions.

He's been remarkably consistent through a stretch of time in which Carolina's secondary has changed a great deal with the departures of cornerback Josh Norman and safety Roman Harper; it was Harper's return to the Saints after two years with the Panthers that had Coleman switching from free to strong safety in 2016.

"There is a void back there that has to be filled in terms of leadership," Panthers coach Ron Rivera said before the 2016 season, per Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer. "Kurt has done that and understands how important he is to us."

Whether playing free or strong safety, Coleman is one of the better intermediate-to-deep players at his position. He plays zone structures well, and he has great vision for being in the right place at the right time. You will consistently see Coleman hanging out in the part of the field where a pass is about to be thrown, and he times his leaps well to bring in the pass. Coleman reads quarterbacks extremely well and will break correctly on the ball as soon as it's thrown—he clearly has benefited from extensive film study.

You may not know who Coleman is, but make no mistake: There's a reason he's near the top of any list of the NFL's best ball hawks.

3. Richard Sherman, CB, Seattle Seahawks

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You know you've set a standard for excellence when you give up 39 receptions on 76 targets for 585 yards and two touchdowns, with four interceptions, and people assume your season isn't what it could have been. That was Richard Sherman's story in 2016, and though he showed a few vulnerabilities against more physical receivers such as Tampa Bay's Mike Evans, and ungodly talents such as Atlanta's Julio Jones, Sherman was on point for the most part.

Since his ascent into the elite in 2013, Sherman has been one of the toughest defenders to throw against. He's picked off 10 passes and has 35 passes defensed over the last three years, and the occasional big play allowed shows up in stark contrast to his usual performance level, which is a compelling combination of shutdown cornerback and true ball hawk.

Sherman has always been aggressive at the line of scrimmage—only the most physical receivers can counter his attempts to redirect them at the snap from press coverage—and he's an expert at using his 6'3" frame and long arms to envelop his target.

He's somewhat vulnerable on shorter routes in which the receiver takes a quick turn at the end—in- and out-breaking stuff as well as quick comebacks—but if you're trying to throw against him on a deep post or a boundary fade, good luck with that.

Sherman had some drama to deal with in the last year with on-field rants at coaches and off-field trade rumors, but he's still with the Seahawks, and if he's able to focus his talents where they need to be, he's still one of the best cornerbacks in the game—and certainly one of the most imposing ball hawks. From 2013 through 2016, only Oakland's Reggie Nelson (19) has more picks than Sherman's 18.   

2. Reggie Nelson, S, Oakland Raiders

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When the Raiders signed Reggie Nelson to a two-year, $8.5 million deal in April 2016, the hope was the veteran would replace the retired Charles Woodson as not only an effective pass defender, but also a leader for the rest of the team's young secondary.

But this move wasn't about Nelson's veteran clubhouse presence—in his last year with the Bengals in 2015, he tied for the league lead with eight interceptions, and he had 23 total picks through his six years in Cincinnati. Add in the five picks for the Raiders last season, and the four he had for the Bengals in 2014, and no other player had more interceptions than Nelson's 17 over the last three years.  

Not bad for a guy who just closed out his 10th season.

It's the combination of physical gifts and football acumen acquired over that decade that makes Nelson an interception machine. Like Woodson, he can play closer to the line, but he shines when he's playing deeper in the formation and retreating to cover long passes. In addition, he's developed a knack for being around the ball. More than a few of his picks have come from deflections, either off the receiver's hands, or off another defender's.

Nelson still has the speed to get deep and in position on posts and go routes, and he's technically aggressive when jumping to defeat receivers on high catches and overthrows. Opposing quarterbacks targeted Nelson 23 times last season, and he allowed just 13 catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns to go with those five picks.

Nelson will turn 34 in September, and there's no indication he's lost a step. That's a remarkable achievement at a position where the drop-offs can be quick and severe.

1. Marcus Peters, CB, Kansas City Chiefs

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While the parameters for this list focus on the last three NFL seasons, Marcus Peters doesn't quite fit the bill—because in just two years in the pros, he's already put up ridiculous numbers, backed it up on tape and made himself the league's most feared turnover machine. Peters led the league with eight interceptions in his rookie campaign, following that with six in 2016.

Only Nelson has more than Peters' 14 interceptions over the last three seasons, and again—Peters needed just two years to get his. Peters' 46 passes defensed ranks fifth in the league, again over just two years in his case, and he allowed just 51 catches on 87 targets last season. Over time, quarterbacks will realize targeting him is not a great idea.

Why is Peters the best ball hawk in the league?

Physically, he can do everything you need a top-level cornerback to do: He can run with deep receivers, transition quickly against faster angular routes (he's improved on this since his rookie year), and can play both press and off-coverage. When he's playing press, he'll determine the inside and outside position of his coverage based on his strength to redirect the receiver. And when he's playing off, he has the field vision and intelligence to read the quarterback, judge the timing of the pass and jump the route at the last second.

He's just 24 years old, and his arrow is pointing straight up. Over time, he could become one of the most dominant cornerbacks in recent NFL history.