How do the questions apply to the Cardinals’ current CBs?
If you were watching ESPN’s 2025 NFL Draft coverage, you may have seen the segment where Nick Saban described the three-part criteria he’s always had in evaluating CBs:
“All I want to know about CBs are three things:
- (1) Can you cover man-to-man?
- (2) Can you and track the ball on deep passes?
- (3) Can you tackle?”
With PFF’s 2024 CB rankings for NFL players who took over 300 snaps, here is how the Cardinals’ CBs fared:
NFL ranking —- Overall CB grade —— Coverage grade
- 3 —- Garrett Williams —- 82.0 —- 83.7
- 76 —- Starling Thomas V —- 60.9 —- 67.5
- 92 —- Sean Murphy- Bunting —- 56.5 —- 53.1
- 96 —- Max Melton —- 55.5 —- 57.3
Had he taken more than 300 snaps and maintained his level of play consistently:
- 28 —- Kei’Trel Clark —- 71.7 —- 65.7
2024 Cardinals’ CB Tackling Grades:
- 69.3 —- Kei’Trel Clark
- 67.5 —- Starling Thomas V
- 58.9 —- Garrett Williams
- 44.9 —- Max Melton
- 29.3 —- Sean Murphy-Bunting
With PFF’s 2024 CB grades for FBS players who took over 300 snaps, here is how the Cardinals’ new CBs fared: (plus Elijah Jones’ 2023 grades, seeing as we haven’t seen him play a regular season game yet).
Overall CB grade —— Coverage grade —- Man Coverage grade —- Tackling grade
- Elijah Jones (2023) —- 90.6 —- 91.6 —- 90.8 —- 69.6
- Will Johnson (2024) —-76.5 —- 76.7 —- 50.6 —- 48.7
- Denzel Burke (2024) —- 70.7 —- 70.1 —- 58.5 —- 72.9
ROTB Questions:
Which of the Cardinals’ CBs have the best chance to satisfy Nick Saban’s criteria?
Interestingly, last year when the Cardinals drafted Max Melton, Nick Saban raved about Max’s man coverage ability.
It appears that Jonthan Gannon and Nick Rallis are committed to playing well over 60% of the coverages in zone. Are you comfortable with that? Which current CBs do you feel best suit zone coverages?
Plus, do you want to see Garrett Williams play perimeter CB, or are you 100% content with him being a slot CB?
Why do you suppose that after the bye week in make-or-break games during key 3rd and 4th down conversions, the coaches did not have Garrett Williams cover either Justin Jefferson or Adam Thielen from the slot?
Could you envision a scenario where JG/NR platoon a set of zone CBs with a set of man CBs?
If you are picking 6 CBs to make the 53, who are your favorites?