- Cooper DeJean reclaims the top spot: DeJean has been strong in any assignment, ranking seventh in man-coverage grade and dominating underneath zones with the highest grade in those schemes by a significant margin.
- Nick Emmanwori leads the 2025 rookie class: Slot corners naturally surrender a high percentage of their targets, and Emmanwori is no exception, but limiting yardage is the key. He has excelled there, allowing just 0.97 yards per coverage snap, fifth-best in the NFL.
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If quarterback is the most important position on the football field, then limiting the effectiveness of that player is the most important thing a defense can do.
A team can achieve this in two ways: it can pressure the passer to disrupt their timing, rhythm and accuracy, or it can shut down the opposing receivers.
Each week, after every NFL game is graded and reviewed, PFF will check in on the top cornerbacks of the 2025 season.
These rankings utilize PFF All-Coverage charting and data to rank the cornerbacks, providing insights into PFF coverage grades and our Successful Coverage Over Expected (SCOE) metric, which measures how well each coverage defender performed above expectations on non-targeted coverage snaps.
We grade every coverage defender’s ability to prevent separation, whether they are targeted on the play or not. These rankings utilize play-level normalization and expectation adjustments. After all, matching up with a receiver is more difficult than covering a running back, and playing man coverage is typically more difficult than matching in a zone.
Here are the top 32 cornerbacks in PFF’s advanced coverage grade after Week 12 of the 2025 season.
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