Pro Football Focus, a site dedicated to unique analysis of what happens on the football field, has been unveiling a series of articles that have been of interest to us Vikings fans during this hellish lockout.
Most recently, they dedicated an article to one of the league’s most under rated cornerbacks, Antoine Winfield.
“How often do you hear Antoine Winfield’s name mentioned in the discussion of top cornerbacks in the league?” is how the article begins. “He might be one of the most underrated players around, and he seems to be defying the laws of ageing by only getting better, playing his finest football over the past two seasons.”
The article goes on to say that PFF’s unique player grading system pegged Winfield as the best cornerback in the NFL during the 2010 season. The final “grade” is a combination of coverage, run stopping, penalties, and blitzing. Winfield ended up as one of only a handful of cornerbacks to grade positively in every category.
PFF admits that Winfield isn’t the best cover corner in the league, as we Vikings fans are familiar with, but his ability to be useful in other facets of the game are incredibly valuable, especially when you consider that NFL offenses run the ball 40% to 50% of the time.
They also point out that he is one of the corners in the league that will regularly have more than just a wide receiver assigned to block him, but yet he has an uncanny ability to work his way through those blocks and make a stop. His run stopping ability, according to PFF, grades out better than plenty of linebackers.
Fans of Joe Webb love to say it was him that won the 2010 Monday Night game against Michael Vick’s Eagles. While that is partly true, anyone who watched that game has to admit that Antoine Winfield (assigned to blitz 17 times that night) did more than anybody else to win that game, including a strip-sack, recovery, and touchdown on one play.
Another unique aspect to Winfield’s disciplined approach to the game is that he played over 1,000 snaps in 2010 without once being flagged for a penalty. This is especially incredible when you realize the longest pass he gave up in 2010 was for 27 yards, and that he didn’t allow a single touchdown all season long.
Winfield will allow completions and isn’t a true shut down corner, but he is valuable enough to put him among the NFL’s elite, and when the Vikings are deep enough and healthy enough at the corner position, they can slide Winfield into the slot where he is at his best.
One goal for the Vikings this offseason has to be to get Cedric Griffin and Chris Cook healthy, see Asher Allen and Brandon Burton develop, and be able to keep Winfield in the slot as often as possible. This, and this alone, will be the best approach when it comes to replacing Ben Leber at outside linebacker.
Winfield isn’t getting any younger, but he is certainly looking like he plans to reward the Vikings for extending his contract despite his age.
To read the entire PFF article then you can click here.
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