But remember, when Revis is a hall of famer and finishes his career as one of the best corners of all time, don’t forget about what I said.

I’ve said repeatedly that Revis has the skills to be a very good corner. I’ve also said that his actual impact last season was less than, say, Corey Webster. Webster was targeted 69 times, had a successful result on 62% of those throws, gave up 5.4 yards per throw and defended 25 passes while picking off three. Was it a function of the pass rush? Of the scheme? Did the Giants spend their time playing tight man coverage while the Jets insisted on playing Revis off? It doesn’t really matter. Webster was a more effective piece of the overall defensive structure than Revis was.

You keep on asking me for a list or a ranking of some sort, and I’m not trying to evade the question. I just think that the idea of ranking corners is kind of silly, and that the distinctions between players isn’t worth haggling over. What I would say is this- cornerbacks (like many positions, actually) should be given a letter grade. Asomuga gets an A+. There are a good 15-20 guys who get an A or an A-, and they are more or less interchangable in terms of the impact they provide for a defense. You can take Assante Samuel and Antoine Winfield and Darrelle Revis and Corey Webster and Courtland Finnegan and Chris Gamble and switch them all around and you aren’t going to get a significant change in the performance of your defense, because the corner position is so heavily dependent on the parts around it and the scheme. It’s frankly a red herring to go off and worry about whether Revis is an A or an A-. The problem is that the Jets have an A/A- on one side and a C/C- on the other, with a C- in nickel. That’s where the defense is going to have to make its improvement. It makes no difference whatsoever whether Revis is the third best corner in the league or the 10th. The way offenses attack the defense will be the same.

And I will say again, of course TD’s allowed matters. If a CB gives up 95 receiving yards but allows no TD’s as you said before, then you’re right, the TD’s allowed is meaningless. But when did Revis ever vep 95 receiving yards? Has the guy ever given up 100 yards to a receiver? TD’s allowed does matter when your not only allowing VERY few Td’s, but also allowing VERY few receiving yards

Revis may well be very talented at man coverage, but that’s not all a corner is asked to do. And he doesn’t always have to deny the catch for him to be effective. The entire idea behind the Success Rate is to see how often Revis is winning the battle. Giving up a hitch and tackling the receiver for a six yard gain is a win for Revis on 3rd and 8. It’s a loss for him on 1st and 10 or 2nd and 7. If it was entirely a function of soft playcalling as you suggest, than Revis’ success rate will go up next year. Baltimore’s corners generally had higher success rates- 49% for Ivy, but 56% for Fabian Washington, 57% for Frank Walker and 64% for Samari Rolle, and all that done with a pass rush that was statistically inferior the the Jets’ one (Jets fans might be a little surprised to hear that, but it’s true). On the other hand, all of those corners save Rolle gave up nearly a yard more per pass than Revis, so they were playing more of an all or nothing style defense. (Rolle averaged only 4.5 yards a reception, which was second-best in the league, while his 64% success rate was 6th best.)

Anyway, we’ll see. If Revis is as good as you are suggesting, he should be able to match Rolle’s numbers, seeing as he’ll be utilized in much the same way. But Revis probably won’t.

And I disagree about the TD’s. Of course it should matter how many TDs a corner gives up. Do you have stat for TD’s allowed by corners? Im just curious to see them

To answer your question, I would say that corner is a position that it doesn’t make a ton of sense to look at in a vacuum. I would say that those other players put up equal or better seasons within the context of their defenses than Revis did within the context of his. If you want to say that Sheldon Brown and Assante Samuel had a better pass rush in front of them and therefore Revis should be bumped up however much while the other players should be downgraded however much, then you’re welcome to do so.

Revis is my favorite player and I watch him closely every game, and thanks to DVR, multiple times. And i recall watching many games where he was barely thrown at 2 or 3 times, so I find 77 “targets” difficult to believe.