El, I respect your opinion, & u definitely know more about football & CB play than I do, but when determining the greatness of a player in ANY sport, longevity should never carry more weight than a player's peak. If that was the case, then Lebron should be considered better than MJ; me & u both know that's definitely not true.
Rod Woodson made 8 all pro teams @ CB, before switching to safety in the twilight yrs of his career.
That is true in Basketball, in Football longevity does have to be equated into the argument because of the physical demand & toll it takes on players.
Playing 10+ years at peak performance is a lot easier to do in BBall than it is in Football.
But even using the peak of a player's career, specifically at CB, the Defense they played on & the team they played for has to be factored in as well.
It's much easier to be an Elite Corner when you play on an Elite Defense surrounding you, hence why Richard Sherman was looked as great despite being limited in what he actually could do.
Rod Woodson was a great CB, however, he benefitted from playing on a stacked Steelers Defense & did so during a time period in the league when rules were more favored towards the Defense in allowing much more physical contact beyond the line of scrimmage.
In order to really have the debate, the framework has to be set, what criteria are we judging the CB's by? Stats, accolades/individual success, or how they played during their career & the impact they had?
My reasoning for putting Pat at #2 All-Time is based on,
- Degree of difficulty
- Ability/Technique
- Assignments
- Game film
Patrick Peterson did something that the majority of CB's that people will argue are better than him rarely (if ever did); He traveled. Meaning, he followed the #1 WR wherever they lined up. Didn't matter if it was the X/Field, the Flanker, or the Slot, Pat stuck to his assignment which was always the best WR & more than held his own for the majority of his career.
Most CB's are Left side or Ride side/ Field, Boundary or Nickel, Pat was all 3 on any given down. And did so in pass heavy era when the rules had been changed to favor the WR's & foster more scoring.
He also did it without playing on Defenses surrounded by HOF'ers & All-Pro's. For the majority of his 13 year career, he was the best player on the Defenses he played for, even as late as 2022, 11 years in.
From a technical & mechanical standpoint, Patrick was essentially a create-a-player prototype CB for 12 out of 13 years of his career.
When you wanna teach young Corners how to properly speed turn, Pat's tape is what you show them. When wanna show them how to properly Mirror-Shuffle, it's Pat's tape that you teach from. In the modern era, there wasn't a more perfect Press Man Cover Corner technique than Pat's.
Pat had every physical advantage to be sloppy & undisciplined, being his size & having his natural speed he could've easily just played Off-Bail decided to Safety style Cherry-pick INT's like a lot of Corners did in his era (cough, cough Asante Samuel & Richard Sherman), but yet he didn't.
I understand why I would get the reaction I'm getting, but I don't have this opinion for no reason.
Pat's a Hall Of Famer & its not because he didn't prove it throughout his career.
Let it go, Let it Go , Let Go