Top five secondaries in the NFL right now

When it comes to secondaries, most people only think of the two starting corners and safeties, but you have to look into who a team is actually playing in the games. Some of those Seattle-style cover three teams play more base and nickel packages, but there are also teams with multiple fronts and personnel packages, who throw out six or seven DBs primarily on third down.

At the same time, not every team runs the same types of coverages and put their defenders in one-on-one coverage situations. It all depends on the scheme these teams run and what they expect from their players.

#1 New England Patriots

At the very top, you have to go with New England Patriots. They might be second in the league in sacks and have a great trio of linebackers, including Jamie Collins who I said was my favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, but the strength of this unit is the defensive backfield. Nobody gives their guys in more man-coverage duties and expect them to study gameplans quite like this team. Ste

phon Gilmore is probably the best corner in the league right now and unlike most years when the Pats bracketed the number one option in the passing game and had their top corner in a favorable matchup against #2s, with him they actually leave him on an island with a lot of the premier wideouts. In his tenth season, Devin McCourty is the most experienced guy in this system and he has seemingly been in the right spot every single time, as he leads the NFL in interceptions. However, you look past those guys and see three safeties with about 150 percent of the snaps combined, Jason McCourty still playing at a fairly high level and the formerly undrafted Jonathan Jones showing tremendous hustle already when he punched that ball out of Nick Chubb’s hands a couple of weeks ago.

The other member of that group that I am really high on is J.C. Jackson. He might get a little handsy at times, but I love his physicality and competitiveness.

#2 Baltimore Ravens

Next up I have a secondary that has been hampered by injuries for large stretches and has had some struggles already but now has really hit their stride. Baltimore’s trio of corners in Marlon Humphrey, Jimmy Smith and Marcus Peters is as good as it gets.

It didn’t take Peters very long to make an impact, as he was the first defender to pick off Russell Wilson this season and took that one all the way to the house. Marlon Humphrey has absolutely been a top-three corner this year, not only smothering receivers from the line, but also forcing four turnovers and most recently getting that scoop-and-score against the Patriots. And while Jimmy Smith hasn’t played a lot this year, we have seen the impact of him in or out of the lineup historically and the numbers are pretty drastic. Even though Earl Thomas seems to have lost a gear compared to his time in Seattle, the Ravens utilize him more around the line of scrimmage and as a blitzer, while still breaking up passes by anticipating different patterns.

They might have lost Tony Jefferson for the year, but he had not been playing particularly well anyway and the combination of Chuck Clark and long-time chess piece Anthony Levine has worked out pretty well for them.

#3 Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have had one of the most underrated defenses for a while now. With the way they made Tom Brady look like a few weeks ago, I feel like they are starting to get the recognition they deserve, but I still don’t believe that people actually know the names om the backs of those jerseys. They have built a really strong D-line through the draft and their two linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano can just fly around, but like New England, the thing that really makes this unit go is the back-end.

It all starts with what might be the best safety tandem in the league right now when you look the highly instinctive Micah Hyde, who brings a ton of versatility to the table, and Jordan Poyer, who is one of the most secure tacklers out there and always shows up around the ball. Third-year man Tre’Davious White has quickly become of the best zone corners in the game. He has come up with three picks, one of them sealing the Bengals game and another one at the goal-line against Miami, when his team was down by five and turned things around after that. Despite bringing in former first-round pick Kevin Johnson from Houston, it has been a former walk-on and undrafted free agent Levi Wallace, who not only became a starter for the premiere program in college football at Alabama, but has now played over 90 percent of the snaps for Buffalo.

Their primary nickel Taron Johnson had one of the lowest marks on yards allowed per coverage snap in the slot last season.

#4 Carolina Panthers

A secondary that seemingly isn’t getting the recognition it deserves due to their strong front-seven is the one of the Carolina Panthers. Everything plays together for this entire defense, with the pass rush complementing the back-end and the coverage forcing quarterbacks to hold onto the ball longer.

The Panthers were the most zone-heavy defense in the league last year and while they still run those schemes primarily, you have to understand how it works. They do use some two-high looks and use the length of their corners to allow them to get hands-on balls that were supposedly thrown over their head – an incredible leaping pick by Donte Jackson comes to mind. However, they run a lot of cover-three, which leaves those corners pretty much one-on-one on the outside with those deep third responsibilities. Jackson’s speed and jumping ability to contest catches are incredible, while James Bradberry has been used more against those big wideouts in the NFC South and beyond, which he has really limited when you look at the numbers. Tre Boston has been kind of a journeyman safety up to this point, but he has played some of his best ball as a member of Carolina, as the only guy with 100 percent of the defensive snaps.

And then there’s Eric Reid, who was out of the league through the first quarter of the season due to his political stance, but has been one of the more well-rounded safeties out there since returning to the league.

#5 Green Bay Packers

Rounding out the top five is the team has invested more draft capital into their secondary than any other team in the league recently. Over the last three years, the Green Bay Packers have used five combined first- and second-round picks to acquire help on the back-end. It started with Kevin King out of Washington, who they now like to use against big-bodied pass-catchers for the most part.

In 2018, they drafted two more corners in Louisville’s Jaire Alexander and Iowa’s Josh Jackson. While Jackson’s lack of pure speed has made Green Bay try him out at safety and be a special teams contributor primarily, Alexander truly is the star of the bunch. I had him as my 12th overall prospect because of what a fluid athlete he is and the fact I thought he could be a true shutdown corner, which through his short time in the league he has pretty much developed into already. This year the Pack selected Maryland safety Darnell Savage, who was another one of my favorite prospects out because he just flies around the field like a missile and you almost hold your breath whenever he is around the field. The additions of the Smith brothers upfront to revitalize that pass rush has been crucial, but what could make this defense special is that backfield, now also with former Bear Adrian Amos to give them a veteran presence and consistently good play.

Mike Pettine loves to bring pressure in all varieties and mix up zone and man looks on the back-end. Now he has the crew to actually get it done.