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NFL Divisional Rankings: Secondaries

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Continuing the series of ranking the divisions by position. Some trends have emerged first, I think highly of the N.F.C. West  players outside of the quarterback position, the N.F.C. East is strong, and that depth across the league isn’t great.

Let’s see what emerges from a look at the secondaries of each team.

#8 N.F.C. North

Chicago Bears

Green Bay Packers

Minnesota Vikings

Detroit Lions

This is a projection. Based on last year the Packers could not be this high, but I just can’t believe they will be that bad in the back end this year. The Bears are a plus secondary. The Vikings and Lions need to be much better in 2012.

#7 N.F.C. South

Atlanta Falcons

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Carolina Panthers

New Orleans Saints

The Bucaneers and Panthers were 31st and 32nd in the league in yards per pass attempt. I think the Saints secondary is helped by the fact that they were up early often and teams were forced to pass.  The Falcons have guys who can cover at cornerback and have some intriguing safety talent as well.

# 6 A.F.C. West

Kansas City Chiefs

Denver Broncos

San Diego Chargers

Oakland Raiders

I’m a sucker for good safety play and this division has some impressive safety players, but not enough to earn a higher ranking. Eric Berry should make a big difference. The Broncos were young last year, but I think will be better this year. The Chargers are always good statistically, but something is just missing there. They don’t make enough big plays and they gave up a ton of touchdown’s last year. The Raiders, I think, are going to be bad in 2012.

#5 A.F.C. East

New York Jets

Buffalo Bills

Miami Dolphins

New England Patriots

The Jets secondary has the potential to be terrific. I think the Bills defense is going to be much better this year than last. I really liked the Stephon Gilmore pick and think the Bills have good cornerback depth and pretty good safety play. The Dolphins are the definition of average, and the Patriots have to better than they were last year, right?  The Jets deserve to be a top 3 to top 5 secondary, but the rest of this division needs to step up their game.

#4 N.F.C. East

Philadelphia Eagles

New York Giants

Dallas Cowboys

Washington Redskins

The Eagles have the best cornebacks and are much more consistent than the Giants who have had major lapses in concentration.  I think the Giants are more talented at safety than the Cowboys are by far, which is the big difference. Corey Webster vs Bradon Carr is near a wash and both teams have talented, but unproven players behind them. The Cowboys safeties though are scary. The Redskins have a good defense and their secondary played well statistically last year, but I’m just not buying it.

#3 A.F.C. South

Houston Texans

Tennessee Titans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Indianapolis Colts

The Texans have one of the better secondaries in the league. The Titans and Jaguars don’t have the most talented secondary players in the entire league, but they play together well and limit big plays. Both teams ranked in the top ten in yards per pass attempt (and the Titans were number three). I think the fact that these teams get to play each other”s passing games might boost their numbers a bit, but they have a legitimate claim to be the third best secondary in the league.  The Colts are just bad.

#2 N.F.C. West

Seattle Seahawks

San Francisco 49ers

Arizona Cardinals

St. Louis Rams

Pass stats can be misleading. The Rams have the 7th best yards per game average, but looking further we see the Rams gave up 7.4 yards per pass attempt and only intercepted 12 passes. The Seahawks might have THE best secondary in the league. Terrific safety play, and big physical cornerbacks who can also play the run well. Really good secondary. If the Seahawks can get a big pass rush out of Bruce Irvin (or someone else) the secondary could look even better. The Cardinals secondary played much better the second half of the year than the first. The Rams, as previously mentioned, despite their good yards per game ranking are not a good secondary.

#1. A.F.C. North

–Baltimore Ravens

Cleveland Browns

Pittsburgh Steelers

Cincinnati Bengals

Stats are not the end all be all, but three of the top five team leaders in passing per yards per game reside in the A.F.C. North. Even three of the top four. The order actually goes Steelers, Browns, Ravens, but I think the talent in the secondary is in the reverse order. The Steelers have a real pass rush, while the Ravens and Browns rely on one player or smoke and mirrors. Nevertheless, the A.F.C. North has the league’s best secondary play. The Browns could use another cornerback, but have good young safeties. The Ravens have good cornerbacks and Ed Reed, the Steelers more than hold their own, and the Bengals made a concentrated effort to improve their secondary (which was ranked 9th in yards per game and weren’t bad in yards per attempt either).

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

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