The Best Cornerback Of All Time?

[Jason]

It may be Bronco bias or the fact that this guy is one of my all time favorite football players, but Champ Bailey has surpassed Rod Woodson and Deion Sanders as the greatest Cornerback of all time, in my opinion.

[Man in Black]

I've always given Champ a ton of credit, but I'll have to agree to disagree with you on that one. I'll give you first ballot HOF though!

Oh, I meant to mention... nothing against Woodson, but Champ has him beat I would agree.

[Jason]

I'll take it!!

[Man in Black]

You know another one that is moving way up on my list is Charles Woodson. He just keeps getting better and he was always brilliant.

[Jason]

Charles Woodson is definitely great. He's up there for me, too. I'd have to think about it more, and consider a ton more cornerbacks, but I think Sanders, R. Woodson and Bailey are a solid top 3 for me.

[Man in Black]

Oh I agree. I just think woodson is coming on strong in his old age. When you watch a green bay game you hear his name 1,000,000 times.

[Jason]

I'm only feeling stronger about Bailey taking the all time top spot. He is deifnitely overall better than Deion if you include tackling and run support, which he has always been great at. But Bailey and Deion are the two best cover corners ever, and Bailey is at least as good as Deion at covering, if not better.

I've got to go with Champ, and I don't think there is a cornerback playing today that will surpass the big three (Bailey, Woodson, Sanders).

[Jason]

Bailey is still currently active, and already has 400 more tackles than Deion. Which is incredibly impressive. What I can't seem to find is a "thrown to" stat. Bailey has defended many more passes than Deion, but I can't see how often they've been thrown to.

I think the case will be made for Deion being the overall better football player, but in terms of the cornerback position, Bailey has him beat, in my opinion.

Statistic	Champ Bailey	Deion Sanders
Games played	211	188
Tackles	926	526
INT	52	53
Pass breakups	206	92

[Man in Black]

I don't know if there is a thrown to stat... but I've seen a lot of Sanders's games and they didn't throw anything at him. They'd sneak one in once or twice a game and most of the time he'd catch it. So they didn't throw it that way again. He was like Hester and kicking... they don't want to kick it to Hester and nobody threw at Deion... more times than not they paid dearly for it.

Now the tackling... I'm not sure if I ever saw Sanders make what I'd call a tackle. If you are adding run support and help tackling in... Champ has all that covered... pun intended.

Covering the deep ball... not that Champ is bad, he is better than Mr. Island right now... but Sanders was an absolute artist at that. His speed and quickness are unequaled and on so many of his interception replays you could see him give up many yards on purpose to draw the throw... only to close and take the ball already in a position to return it.

All that said... I can concede to you that Champ is a better all-around defensive back, and he is one of my favorite players today.