How do I say this... I had the very fortunate experience of witnessing Devin McCourty and Darrelle Revis and then later Stephon Gilmore. D-Mac is one of the underrated safeties in the past 30 years of this sport, people avoided throwing into his zone knowing he'll pick it if it's slightly off. The moment he was playing robber, you better not look his direction.
That being said, I'll take Revis and Gilmore, and therefore, the shutdown corner. If you can eliminate a top receiving option with one guy in todays game, it's such a huge advantage. Really good safeties elevate the play of the secondary, but only to such an extent. Shutdown corners basically eliminate one receiver and deconstruct gameplans.
And before anyone ***** on me for mentioning Gilmore, dude was the first DPOY as a CB in a decade in a timeline with Aaron Donald playing.