Sig Stats: YPCS, Cornerbacks

Throughout this week we've been looking at a selection of our Signature Stats and picking out some of the best performers from the 2014 season. While we are confident that individual grades give the best picture of overall performance, these unique stats let us look at specific aspects of player performance, in a way that standard statistics cannot.

In this article we want to use our Yards per Cover Snap (YPCS) statistic to look at which cornerbacks excelled in  the 2014 season. YPCS measures the yardage conceded when a player is in primary coverage, on a per snap basis. It lets us move a little closer to measuring just how shutdown a corner is.

(Note: only corners who played at least 300 coverage snaps in the regular season were considered)

The Top Fifteen

Chris Harris Jr. of the Denver Broncos stands clear atop the rankings with a hugely impressive 0.57 YPCS score. He had to work hard for it, being targeted 89 times in total – only Aqib Talib was targeted more often (95 times) and also made the Top 15, making it even more remarkable. Harris was also moved about, spending 40% of his snaps covering the slot, however his YPCS performance inside (0.57) matched precisely his performance on the outside (0.57). Harris allowed just 7.7 yards per catch, the best mark among starting corners, and completed the season with a positive coverage grade in every game. It was a remarkable year by any measure and earned him fourth place in our Dwight Stephenson Award list, marking him out as one of the very best in football last season.

Second on the list is Richard Sherman, who enjoyed another outstanding season, having led the league in this category last year when he allowed just 0.63 YPCS. Sherman had a perfect three game stretch against the Cardinals, 49ers and Eagles where he was targeted eight times, with zero completions allowed, two picks and a batted pass. Opposing quarterbacks have such high regard for Sherman, that in his two most recent games he was targeted a mere five times for three completions, giving up 12 yards at a paltry 0.14 YPCS. That was in playoff football, when he faced off against two future Hall of Fame passers, while playing with just one fully functional arm for much of the time.

Prior to the season, Panthers corner Josh Norman would have seemed an unlikely contender to finish in the top three. The third-year corner out of Coastal Carolina was a rotational player early in the year, but claimed his spot in the starting line-up midway through the season and more than held his own.

The PFF Free Agency Tracker shows that two corners listed above are scheduled to hit free agency this year, Rashean Mathis and Kareem Jackson. The veteran Mathis has enjoyed two strong seasons in Detroit, earning as cumulative +16.5 coverage grade and shouldn't lack for suitors this offseason. Jackson hasn't always lived up to his status as a former first-round draft choice, but will have been delighted to return to his 2012 form in a contract year.

Rookie Watch

The top performing rookie was Bené Benwikere of the Carolina Panthers, with 0.98 YPCS. Benwikere, a fifth round selection out of San Jose State, opened the season as the team's slot corner before picking up an injury in Week 5. He was out for eight weeks but returned to start on the outside, finding terrific form during the Panthers' late surge into the playoffs. He gave up just one touchdown all season, that coming in the divisional round game at Seattle.

E.J. Gaines was the second rookie to make the list. Injuries in the Rams' secondary forced Gaines into the starting line-up from Week 1, and from that point he was rarely off the field prior to picking up an injury in the penultimate week. He had some difficult days, with four games grading less than -1.0, but showed a welcome propensity for making plays on the ball, with two picks and 10 batted passes.

Top on the Team

Now we can finish with a look at the top YPCS performers on a team by team basis. Whether through fitness or form, some teams struggled to field regular starting corners throughout the season. So, in order to consider more corners per team the cover snap threshold has been lowered to 200.

The most striking feature of this table is the presence of Jimmy Smith right at the top. Prior to his season-ending injury, Smith was matching Harris with a hugely impressive 0.57 YPCS rate. The Baltimore Ravens' 2011 first-round selection, Smith was certainly living up to that lofty billing in 2014.

Yards per Cover Snap, like the rest of our signature stats, can be found on the Premium Site, along with the full array of player grades.

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