Covering Your Bets: 2020 Cornerback Ranks

Seasonal (redraft) ranks will appear in article form this year at Dynasty Football Factory. The IDP ranks in spreadsheet form are and will remain for a dynasty format. I’ll update the dynasty ranks year-round, thus making available a rare resource for IDP gamers. I, myself, was always on the hunt for current dynasty ranks for start-up and dispersal drafts for IDP leagues before I started writing.

Context for These Ranks

The fantasy value of cornerbacks is highly volatile for each player year over year but quite flat as a group throughout each season. Theories about what makes a cornerback a good IDP option abound.

Some fantasy gamers seek a cornerback playing press-man coverage in front of two deep safeties. Others prefer cornerbacks who play zone. The latter type, facing the line of scrimmage, can better assist with run defense. Many gamers also target rookies as well as teammates of renowned “shutdown” cornerbacks. 

Your writer’s favorite approach is to select a full-time cornerback who steps into the role of slot defender in sub-packages. Logan Ryan met these criteria in 2019 en route to the best fantasy season by a cornerback in recent memory. Slot defenders face shorter, more frequent passes. By lining up closer to the quarterback at the snap, Ryan contributed to blitz packages and run support, easily leading all cornerbacks in tackles last season. 

The second leading scoring cornerback, Marlon Humphrey of the Ravens, became the primary slot defender after an injury to Tavon Young. The Ravens’ aggressive defense routinely blitzed defensive backs, thus supplementing Humphrey’s production of tackles and passes defensed with big plays.

Football fans might quickly think of Chris Harris, Jr., as another player who plays outside in base defense and in the slot in nickel. Harris, however, has rarely been a good fantasy cornerback through his illustrious career. 

Therein lies a conundrum that challenges newcomers to IDP fantasy football. Good players at the position are atypically good fantasy options! Opposing quarterbacks avoid good cover men. Three full-time cornerbacks were targeted on fewer than 10% of their coverage snaps in 2019: Richard Sherman, Byron Jones, and Casey Hayward. (Perhaps you’ve heard of them?) Fewer targets translate to smaller numbers of tackles and passes defensed.

Cornerbacks are like placekickers in fantasy football (as I’ve written before) in that they benefit more from situation than talent. Big legs are like big-play cornerbacks who gamble in coverage to get their hands on the ball. The number of 50-yard field goals Justin Tucker converts is capped by the number of attempts for which his team sets him up. Likewise, the chances for interceptions afforded to Darius Slay or Marcus Peters are limited in no small part by defensive play-calling and opposing quarterbacks’ decisions with the football.

The answer, then, to what makes a good fantasy cornerback is that there is no one answer. Several situational factors must converge. Will the rookie play full time, and if so, at what point during the season? Can the mediocre cornerback opposite the stud get benched for one too many failures? Will injuries or ineffectiveness in coverage lead to more conservative schemes?

Without further ado, here are my defensive placekicker—I mean, cornerback ranks for 2020. I calibrated these ranks for seasonal leagues for 14-team, true-position full-IDP leagues with the scoring settings of FantasyPros.com and 55 roster spots. To that end, I list 32 cover men here in the order of value they offer teams starting 11 IDPs including two cornerbacks. 

Slot Machines

Atop these ranks are cornerbacks who move into the slot in sub-packages and play in secondary’s afforded opportunities to be aggressive within their coverage. These three players are the “Harrison Butkers” of the cornerback position. 

Gamblers

Players ranked 4th through 8th are quality NFL cornerbacks who have consistently shown a propensity to get their hands on the football. Their defenses support their efforts to break up passes and intercept quarterbacks with aggressive schemes. Shaq Griffin has the added benefit of playing half his games in Seattle, where the stat crew generously awards assisted tackles to the second and sometimes third players on the scene. These five players are the Justin Tuckers of the cornerback position.

Fish

My ninth-ranked player, Kyle Fuller plays over 100 snaps a season in the box, a rarity among outside corners. That helped him finish second among cornerbacks in combined tackles in 2019. 

Another contributing factor to Kyle Fuller’s abnormal tackle count last year was a higher allowed completion percentage. He didn’t hold up so well in his second year of facing 99 or more targets. That volume placed him in the top five of both seasons. In 2018, Kyle Fuller led the league in pass break-ups and interceptions. After two years of high finishes in season-long fantasy scoring, gamers will reach for him as safe money in fantasy drafts.

The fish in this tier aren’t bad NFL players, but they’ll be thrown into shark-infested waters, covering opponents’ WR1s. Importantly, each is likely to play a high number of snaps (~1,000) assuming good health. Like Fuller, the players in this tier will be allowed to play aggressively, and they’ll make mistakes. Quarterbacks will attack, and these cover men will have plenty of opportunities to compile statistics. 

Nickel Slots

Slot defenders are increasingly thought of as “starters” in the NFL due to the prevalence of nickel and dime defenses. The following players man this role for their respective teams. Slot defenders are, however, not part of base defenses (34 and 43 fronts with 4 defensive backs).

Some fantasy football platforms designate several of these players’ “safety.” These platforms still rely on players’ alignment in base defenses to set such designations. Fantasy gamers will want to verify these players’ designations before seeking them out in drafts.

Slot defenders are boom-bust options as fantasy cornerbacks because they’re not full-time players. If their team is routed, they’ll lose snaps and bust for fantasy. In better game flow, they rush the passer and defend against the short passing game, providing them opportunities to accrue tackles and pass break-ups. 

According to pass-rush data available from Pro Football Focus, 12 of the 13 cornerbacks who applied the most pressure on the quarterback were players who played primarily in the slot. The top pressure man, the Ravens’ Brandon Carr was used as a utility defensive back. 

Not every team blitzes from the slot, however. The Packers’ Kevin King plays about ten percent of his snaps in the box. His run defense complements his floor for fantasy football as a compiler of tackles. He’s useful in the fantasy game despite his lack of pass-rush opportunities. 

Bryce Callahan missed all of 2019 with injury. He’ll take over Chris Harris’s role as a base outside cornerback and sub-package slot defender. Harris didn’t blitz, but Callahan has proven productive in pass-rush opportunities elsewhere. Like Harris, safety Will Parks left Denver in free agency. The team has no clear option to succeed Parks in his part-time box/slot role. Might Callahan see more action in run defense as a result? Callahan has interesting upside as a fantasy commodity if he earns chances to blitz or supplement run defense. He’s also free everywhere.

Hustlers

The last tier of cornerbacks reaches 32, allowing 2 cornerbacks per roster in a 16-team fantasy league. Don’t hedge your bets with a third cornerback! Throw a dart at another position

These nine include several good cover men who will get their hands on the ball and three relatively unknown commodities. Trayvon Mullen plays in a zone defense and broke up an impressive eleven passes as a rookie in a part-time role last year. 

2020 rookie Jaylon Johnson will play opposite Kyle Fuller in Chicago with two safeties behind him. Johnson has the size to contribute to run defense, too.

Janoris Jenkins retains brand-name recognition as a ballhawk. Can he stay focused in New Orleans? He could attract more targets than running mate Marshon Lattimore. 

Strategy

Fantasy gamers should not risk anything more than their final picks on cornerbacks. Like placekickers, cornerbacks offer a low value over replacement player, and the best fantasy assets at the position often result from surprising circumstances. 

For those reasons, some fantasy gamers will choose simply to draft cornerbacks with attractive Week-1 matchups to move on from them immediately. Streaming cornerbacks is a popular and sensible strategy, but it squanders an opportunity to roster the year’s top fantasy producers. There’s no wrong time to start streaming, so there’s no reason not to be patient in September with cornerbacks in optimal situations. 

Put chips on two cornerbacks from the list above, and know that streaming will cover your losses. Don’t fold your first hand prematurely! 

Clemson and Michigan alum…Panthers and Cowboys fan…I try to see both sides of every debate and each trade. Find me on Twitter @DynastyTripp.