Best NFL cornerbacks heading into 2021 season? Analysts reveal gold, silver, bronze picks

In honor of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, we're highlighting the best of the best across the NFL. Heading into the 2021 season, who are the premium players in five marquee areas: quarterback, running back, wide receiver, pass rusher and cornerback? Twenty-five analysts individually ranked their top three in each category, and then we tallied all of the votes via this simple formula:

Each first-place vote: 3 points
Each second-place vote: 2 points
Each third-place vote: 1 point

Below, you'll find the cornerback podium -- highlighting the gold, silver and bronze medalists from our accumulated ballots -- as well as additional intel on the position.

THE CORNERBACK PODIUM

Also receiving votes: Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore Ravens (8 total points); Stephon Gilmore, New England Patriots (4); Tre'Davious White, Buffalo Bills (3).

INSIGHTS INTO THE CB VOTING

• Six cornerbacks received at least one vote this year -- three fewer than in the 2016 edition of this exercise.
• There isn't a cornerback who made it onto a ballot both this year and when we gave out medals in 2016. The nine CBs who received votes back in '16: Patrick Peterson (gold), Richard Sherman (silver), Darrelle Revis (bronze), Josh Norman, Chris Harris Jr., Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, Desmond Trufant and Jason Verrett.
• The average CB age on each voter's ballot this year: 25.9 years old. That's the youngest average age of the five position groups in this series.
• The six corners who received votes this year have combined to earn 15 Pro Bowls invites, seven first-team All-Pro designations and one Defensive Player of the Year award.
• Eleven of the 25 voters had some combination of Jalen Ramsey, Jaire Alexander and Xavien Howard on the ballot.

CB RECORD HOLDERS

SINGLE SEASON

• Interceptions: 14, Dick "Night Train" Lane (1952)
• Passes defensed*: 31, Darrelle Revis (2009)

CAREER

• Interceptions: 68, Dick "Night Train" Lane
• Passes defensed*: 208, Ronde Barber

*Passes defensed records are unofficial. Our data goes back to 1994.

FASCINATING CB STATS FROM NFL RESEARCH

• Four of the eight cornerbacks who posted four-plus interceptions in 2020 entered the NFL as undrafted free-agent signees: Malcolm Butler, J.C. Jackson, Kenny Moore II and Darious Williams. The other CBs to log four-plus picks last year: Marcus Peters (first-rounder), Carlton Davis and Xavien Howard (both second-rounders) and Kendall Fuller (third-rounder).
• The 2020 season saw two different cornerbacks nab eight-plus picks: Howard (10) and Jackson (9). That hadn't happened in an NFL campaign since Charles Woodson and Asante Samuel each intercepted nine passes back in 2009.
• Twelve cornerbacks recorded 14-plus passes defensed in 2020. Only one of them (Denzel Ward) was a first-round pick, while four (Butler, Jackson, Williams and Michael Davis) were undrafted.
• Four of the top six corners with the lowest completion percentage allowed in 2020, per Pro Football Focus, were born in or played college football in Florida: Ramsey (50.0 comp pct allowed, played at Florida State), Williams (50.0 comp pct allowed, born and played high school football in Jacksonville), Xavier Rhodes (50.7 comp pct allowed, played at Florida State) and Joe Haden (51.5 comp pct allowed, played at Florida).
• Top speed reached by a cornerback since 2018 (Next Gen Stats): 22.81 mph, Chidobe Awuzie (tracking down Saquon Barkley on a 59-yard run back in Week 1 of 2019)

INDIVIDUAL CB BALLOTS