Nov 10, 2013; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson (80) catches a touchdown pass over Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson (21) during the second half at University of Phoenix Stadium. Arizona won 27-24. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
There is a war going on during the NFL off-season, a war of debate as to who is the best in the league. The NFL network has a show running naming the top 100 players of the 2014 season and this has caused everyone to battle over their position on the list.
However, this is not the real war that has been going on this off-season, the real war of the best cornerback in the league has been raging for quite some time now.
It started with Darrell Revis and Richard Sherman last year, now all of the top DB’s are getting fat contracts one after another and each one topping the next.
Recently the Arizona Cardinals star cornerback Patrick Peterson has gotten in the mix, and stating his claim to the thrown as the best DB in the game today.
Its easy for the fans of Arizona to agree with him because they are homers, but is Peterson really better than a SuperBowl champion corner? not to mention compared stats do not reflect his claim.
So why is Peterson adamant about himself being the best, well he appeared on an Arizona radio station speaking of Sherman
"“he’s a good corner but a lock down corner ,I don’t think he is that”"
then of Course Sherman weighed in on these comment by way of twitter saying
"“this kid gives up to many touchdowns”"
speaking of Peterson’s season last year.
By the numbers Sherman is correct but this debate goes further than that,according to Peterson he and Sherman have different duties that would leave one to think that there should not be a comparison at all.
One guy stays on one side of the field all game in a zone or cover three scheme(Sherman), and the other plays straight up man -to-man covering the best receiver on the opposing team all game long(Peterson).
Scheme is the reason why this debate is useless, because if both players do not play in the same system how can they be compared.Both players dominate at the current scheme they play in.
This debate is an ego thing more than anything, but that makes for good competition and much for the fans and media to debate about. In Peterson’s defense having to cover the best receivers, he did lose a few of those battles to some really good receivers.
Calvin Johnson being the biggest of them all, torched the Cardinals defense for two first half touchdowns and Peterson was the victim on defense, but to his credit he returned in the second half and pretty much took the great Megatron out of the game.
So who is really the better corner? that will forever be debated, but its clear that all of the DB’s in question do not all play in the same scheme.
Which should be the only mark used to determine which one is best, by categories like, who is the best man-to-man corner, and the best zone defender and so forth.
Then the numbers can tell the tell and shut the mouths of all of the debaters.