If you look at our list of the top 10 cornerbacks in the NFL using our new PFF rating system, you’ll see the Colts’ Vontae Davis sitting in the No. 1 spot with a 93.7, ahead of Chris Harris Jr., Richard Sherman and the rest of the chasing pack.
The problem with anointing Davis as the best corner in football unequivocally is that he isn’t asked to do some of the things that the other top corners are. He hasn’t tracked receivers, and the Colts haven’t bent their defense around him the way the Seahawks do with Sherman — leaning coverage away from him to focus elsewhere.
Davis played 87.8 percent of his snaps in 2014 lined up at right cornerback — the side targeted less frequently by almost all right-handed quarterbacks — and didn’t see a single snap on the other side of the field at left corner.
Now however, the Indianapolis Star is reporting that Davis may be moved around to tackle an opponent’s best receiver, rather than simply playing one side of the defense. If Davis begins to shadow top receivers in 2015, and maintains the level of play that say him give up a passer rating of just 38.8 when targeted in 2014, then people will have to start to recognize him as one of the best shutdown players in the game — if not the best cornerback overall.
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