Building the Perfect NFL Cornerback

There is no such thing as a perfect player for any position in the NFL. 

At most positions, players find one aspect within the position that they excel at and run with it. 

The NFL cornerback is a prime example— some of them are great due to their blazing speed, while others are known for creating turnovers or laying devastating hits on the ball carrier. 

But what if you could combine those attributes and create the perfect shutdown corner? What would that perfect player need? 

Let's look at some of the best corners in the NFL and see what abilities of theirs would be used in engineering the perfect player. 

Speed: Dominique Rodger-Cromartie (Arizona Cardinals)

It seems as if any cornerback with the last name Cromartie has the ideal speed that the perfect NFL corner would require.

Antonio Cromartie of the New York Jets has blazing straight line speed, but he gets a little sloppy when running side-to-side, which is evident if you watch him cover smaller slot receivers.

His cousin Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, however, has Antonio's speed without the inability to make cuts alongside Wes Welker type receivers. 

Rodgers-Cromartie has been clocked with sub 4.30 40-yard-dash times, and he can run it in the 4.3 range effortlessly on any given day.

He weighs only 185 pounds, so he wouldn't be anyone's first choice to cover a receiver like Calvin Johnson, but he can certainly run step-to-step with any receiver in the league.  

Longevity: Charles Woodson (Green Bay Packers)

Sure, there are players like the 36-year-old Ronde Barber who can still play at an admirable level in their mid-30's.

However, not a lot of corners are capable of becoming the Defensive Player of the Year at the age of 33, except for Charles Woodson of course. 

Woodson made his first Pro Bowl as a rookie in 1998 and he's still been getting the job done at a high level twelve seasons later.

The seven time Pro Bowler will be entering his fourteenth NFL season in 2011 and he isn't showing any signs of true regression after a 2010 season that brought him 92 tackles and two interceptions.

When building the perfect cornerback, Woodson's longevity would be vital to ensure long term effectiveness.  

Hard Hitting: Sheldon Brown (Cleveland Browns)

Hard-hitting safeties are a dime in a dozen, the list would go on and on, but a hard hitting cornerback is harder commodity to find. 

There is no corner that truly stands above the rest as far as delivering violent blows, but Sheldon Brown has made some of the more famous hits in recent years. 

The one hit that truly stood out is the blow he made to Reggie Bush during the 2006 NFC Divisional playoff game, which ended with Bush on the ground momentarily as a result of being stunned.

A hard hitting mentality is a bonus when it comes to a corner, but the absolute perfect corner would have Brown's hitting abilities, and besides, there's nothing better than watching a primadonna like Reggie Bush get a wake up call every now and then.   

Leadership: Nnamdi Asomugha (Oakland Raiders)

Nnamdi Asomugha is widely considered one of the best cornerbacks in the game, so he probably has multiple attributes to offer up when building the perfect corner. 

Asomugha is a pretty well-rounded player, which is what makes him great, but no clear cut skill really stands out. 

Perhaps his best feature is the fear he strikes into quarterbacks, who threw towards him so scarcely in 2010 that he didn't even have a single interception. 

But that fear is something that is earned over time, it's not something a player is born with. 

However, something that Asomugha was born with is his leadership abilities. 

Asomugha has been the team captain for the Oakland Raider for every season since 2007, and leadership is an important trait that's found in most elite players. 

Ball Hawking: Devin McCourty (New England Patriots)

This is probably the most controversial player chosen for this engineering project, given that Devin McCourty of the New England Patriots just finished his rookie season in 2010. 

But any cornerback capable of leading all AFC corners in interceptions (seven) as a rookie deserves to receive some credit for their ball hawking skills.

The most exciting thing a cornerback can do, especially in the eyes of a fan, is to intercept a pass. So it's essential that the perfect corner be an elite turnover machine, and that's exactly what McCourty was during the 2010 season. 

Flexibility: Darrelle Revis (New York Jets)

Not only is Darrelle Revis the best cornerback in the game, he's also the best corner in any situation. 

The April 25th, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated issued an excerpt from New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan's new book "Play Like You Mean It", and the sample from the book provided some first hand insight on the abilities of Revis.

Ryan discussed how Revis can conquer man-to-man or zone coverages, how he can physically keep up with much larger tight ends, and how he allows flexibility for the entire defense.

Good players can make Pro Bowls and have several seasons with eye-popping statistics, but only great players can change the opposing offense's entire game plan in any defensive scheme imaginable.

If there was such a thing as the perfect cornerback, then he'd have the flexibility that Revis gives to the Jets.