Top five secondaries in the NFL right now

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When it comes to secondaries, most people only think of the two starting corners and safeties, but you have to look into who a team is actually playing in the games. Some of those Seattle-style cover three teams play more base and nickel packages, but there are also teams with multiple fronts and personnel packages, who throw out six or seven DBs primarily on third down.

At the same time, not every team runs the same types of coverages and put their defenders in one-on-one coverage situations. It all depends on the scheme these teams run and what they expect from their players.

#1 New England Patriots

At the very top, you have to go with New England Patriots. They might be second in the league in sacks and have a great trio of linebackers, including Jamie Collins who I said was my favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, but the strength of this unit is the defensive backfield. Nobody gives their guys in more man-coverage duties and expect them to study gameplans quite like this team. Ste

phon Gilmore is probably the best corner in the league right now and unlike most years when the Pats bracketed the number one option in the passing game and had their top corner in a favorable matchup against #2s, with him they actually leave him on an island with a lot of the premier wideouts. In his tenth season, Devin McCourty is the most experienced guy in this system and he has seemingly been in the right spot every single time, as he leads the NFL in interceptions. However, you look past those guys and see three safeties with about 150 percent of the snaps combined, Jason McCourty still playing at a fairly high level and the formerly undrafted Jonathan Jones showing tremendous hustle already when he punched that ball out of Nick Chubb’s hands a couple of weeks ago.

The other member of that group that I am really high on is J.C. Jackson. He might get a little handsy at times, but I love his physicality and competitiveness.

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