- Cooper DeJean's playoff run pushes him ahead of Pat Surtain II: DeJean didn't feature until later in the season, and his stellar showing in the playoffs and Super Bowl vaulted him past Surtain in PFF overall grade.
- Rookies feature heavily: In addition to DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell and Andru Phillips were among the NFL's top cornerbacks in 2024.
- 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
The Philadephia Eagles‘ win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 put a bow on the 2024 NFL season — and PFF's grades. Here were the top 10 cornerbacks across the regular season and postseason.
1. Cooper DeJean, Philadelphia Eagles (86.3)
After barely playing on defense to start his NFL career, DeJean earned the Eagles' starting nickel job following their Week 5 bye and never looked back. DeJean didn’t allow a touchdown into his coverage all season on 606 coverage snaps while posting an 84.2 PFF coverage grade.
He was also elite against the run, grading out at 90.4 in that department. DeJean saved his best for the biggest stage, though, garnering a 90.9 PFF overall grade and a 91.0 PFF coverage grade in the Eagles’ Super Bowl win, where he took his first NFL interception to the end zone.
2. Pat Surtain II, Denver Broncos (83.8)
Surtain turned a disappointing 2023 campaign, in which he recorded just a 69.0 PFF overall grade and a 64.7 PFF coverage grade, into a Defensive Player of the Year-level 2024. He became the first cornerback to win the award since Stephon Gilmore in 2019.
Surtain’s 85.1 PFF coverage grade led all cornerbacks, and he was also impressive against the run, putting up an 81.8 PFF grade. He didn't miss a tackle all season, and his 90.5 PFF tackling grade led the position.
T-3. Garrett Williams, Arizona Cardinals (82.0)
Williams wasn’t all that impressive as a rookie in 2023, grading below average in almost every possible category. He took on a bigger workload in 2024 as the Cardinals' slot cornerback, and his production improved significantly. Nowhere was that improvement more evident than in his coverage, where his PFF grade jumped from 57.2 to 83.7, ranking fourth among all cornerbacks and second among nickels.
T-3. Trent McDuffie, Kansas City Chiefs (82.0)
McDuffie is about as well-rounded a cornerback as the league has to offer, earning PFF grades of at least 80.0 in run defense (81.6), tackling (80.0), pass rush (88.6) while narrowly missing that number in coverage (79.2).
The Chiefs liked to use McDuffie on cornerback blitzes, and while he didn’t blitz nearly as often as his absurd 70 times in 2023, he still generated pressure on seven of his 23 pass-rushing snaps, four of which resulted in sacks.
5. Derek Stingley Jr., Houston Texans (80.4)
After a disastrous rookie season, Stingley proved that his breakout 2023 season was no fluke; he backed it up with a very similar performance in 2024. While his PFF overall and coverage grades of 80.4 and 84.4 were slight dips from the 82.1 and 85.3 figures he notched in 2023, he played 307 more snaps in 2024.
Stingley put up big numbers when targeted, leading all cornerbacks with seven interceptions and breaking up 11 more passes for a 39.6 passer rating allowed — the exact number a quarterback would get if they threw the ball into the dirt on every play.
6. Christian Benford, Buffalo Bills (79.3)
Benford has continued to solidify himself as the Bills’ No. 1 cornerback. He followed up his breakout 2023 season with another strong showing in 2024. Tackling was his highest-graded category, as his 89.4 PFF tackling grade trailed only Pat Surtain II. Benford has missed just nine tackles in his three-year NFL career — and six were in his rookie season. He racked up a career-high 18 stops in 2024, more than the 17 he had in his entire career before this past season.
7. Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore Ravens (79.0)
Humphrey had another strong season for the Ravens, turning in his fifth season with at least a 73.9 PFF overall grade in seven tries. He got off to a bit of a slow start, allowing three touchdowns in his first five games, but he didn’t allow another touchdown the rest of the season. Humphrey was also very successful as a pass-rusher, as his 11 pressures ranked second at the position, trailing only Jalen Ramsey.
8. Quinyon Mitchell, Philadelphia Eagles (78.5)
The Eagles made cornerback a high priority in the 2024 NFL Draft, and based on early returns, they knocked it out of the park. Quinyon Mitchell is the second Eagles rookie cornerback to crack this list.
Unlike Cooper DeJean, though, Mitchell was a starter right out of the gate, and despite having to transition from facing MAC receivers to NFL talent, Mitchell posted a 79.2 PFF coverage grade while not allowing a touchdown into his coverage until Week 16. He didn’t have any games where he was particularly dominant (his best single-game grade was the NFC Championship — an 80.6), but he was about as reliable as a rookie cornerback can be.
9. Andru Phillips, New York Giants (77.5)
Cornerback is one of the hardest positions to adjust to in the NFL because of the leap in talent, yet the 2024 rookie class was so good that three first-year players finished among the top 10.
Primarily lining up in the slot, Phillips was not just good in coverage (75.8 PFF grade while allowing only one touchdown), but he was also stout against the run, where he earned a 78.1 PFF grade. Phillips’ 31 stops tied for fifth among cornerbacks, yet he played significantly fewer snaps than any of the players ranked ahead of him.
10. Jalen Ramsey, Miami Dolphins (76.9)
Ramsey, the only player on this list over 30 years old, proved he still has plenty left in the tank. 2024 was his fourth season going over 1,000 snaps in five years while boasting at least a 75.0 PFF overall grade.
Ramsey added a new element to his game this past season, as his 47 pass-rush snaps more than doubled his previous career high. He also led all cornerbacks with 12 quarterback pressures. His work disrupting passes wasn’t just limited to his coverage skills; he also batted four passes at the line. Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton was the only other player at the position to have two.
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