| Champ Bailey: Better Cornerback than Prime Time |
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| Written by Rob | ||||
| Monday, 02 July 2007 07:40 | ||||
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CHAMP BAILEY IS BETTER. He's hands down the best defensive player in the league right now and a better cornerback than Deion Sanders ever was, thought to be and wanted to be. He's complete. He's everything you want in a defensive back. He's extremely fast, breaks on the ball (sometimes even before the QB even knows where he's throwing), has tremendous awareness, studies the game like a QB and he's physical. That last little tidbit is the key to this debate. Physical - keep that word in your head while you read this because I'm probably going to stir some pots and ruffle some feathers.
I know, you're about to rant and rave about my comments but consider the facts and look at the numbers. We know that Deion was extremely elusive and agile. He's exciting with the football and he has great speed to react to the ball. But when you consider his talents you can also realize his downfall. With so much god given talent how did he not blow his stats out of the field to unreachable proportions as did Jerry Rice with his receiving records. The way I see it, Sanders was a prima donna that maybe didn't put forth the effort you would see from most players. He openly admitted that he wasn't paid to tackle and any tackling cornerback couldn't cover a WR. Well Deion, consider Champ Bailey, who excels in coverage and will tackle anyone coming his direction. Champ can dominate his side of the field the way Deion did and will step up for run support. That's key in a division with running backs like LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson.
For Champ Bailey, the 2006 season was one of, if not the best season a cornerback has had in the NFL. In more than one way he exceeded Deion Sanders' 1994 season when Deion won the Associated Press' Defensive Player of the Year award. Champ had ten interceptions, 21 passes deflected, NO TOUCHDOWNS given up, 86 SOLO TACKLES and 98 tackles in all. Now remember this is all in an era when receivers get the benefit of the doubt and pull more pass interference calls than in previous years. Something else to consider is that Champ rarely makes contact with a receiver when making an interception or breaking up a pass. He's always in a position to make a clean play and it's very rare to see him pull a pass interference call. In fact I can't remember the last time he had a PI call on him. Something to note: It can be argued that in Denver's second game against San Diego, Antonio Gates scored a TD over Champ. However, he came off his coverage to defend the pass in the middle to Gates. That's a give and take situation. I don't put that responsibility on Bailey alone. He put himself in a position to make a play that in the end looked like he was beat. That responsibility falls on either the safety or nickel cornerback. SO you can debate "either or" on the matter. Now in comparing Champ Bailey to the man who redefined the cornerback position and the coined the term "Shut Down," you have to look at everything. And the one thing that leaves a gaping hole in Sanders' game was his tackling. He almost refused to tackle and it showes in his numbers. In his 14 year career he amassed 419 tackles. That in comparison to Baileys' 493 tackles in the eight years (he's been in the league). Bailey could possibly finish with more than twice what Sanders recorded in his career. Bailey has the chance to put forth untouchable statistics for years to come. One of the more interesting of Champ's stats is the YPA statistic that KC Joyner calculates each season. Joyner's review on Bailey shows he was thrown at 65 times in 2006 only allowing a 4.7 yard per attempt average. The best average in the four years that Joyner has been calculating the stat. For comparative purposes; the next in line was Chris McAlister with 7.3 YPA. Bailey simply dominates even considering how many times quarterbacks are willing to test him. Now granted I don't have a stat like that on Sanders but I'm sure it's pretty comparitive to Champs which supports my arguement. They're both comparable when it comes coverage skills and shutting down their side of the field. AthleticismDon't get me wrong. No one can take away from Sanders' athletic ability and he quite possibly edges Champ by a small margin in that category but my point is this. The game is on the line, six seconds to go and your team is up by four or five points. It's fourth and goal on the one yard line, the quarterback snaps the ball, fakes the fullback dive and tosses a sweep to the outside. Your defensive line and linebackers sell out on the dive to make a push to clog the middle. Now, you have a one on one situation with your cornerback and... lets say... Steven Jackson. Who do you want out there to make the open field stop? Champ Bailey or Deion Sanders? Personally, I want the better tackler. Granted Steven Jackson is going to run over either guy but Champ is more likely to make the play. Sanders is going to make an attempt at tying Jackson's shoes before he runs him over on his way to making the game winning touchdown. No? That doesn't work for you? Ok, lets look at the same situation. Only this time the running back pulls up and looks to throw the ball for the game winning touchdown. Well, Bailey has a huge presence on defending the end zone. A huge majority of his ten interceptions in 2006 were inside the end zone or five yard line. And if that's not enough he picked off Tom Brady in the 2005 playoffs inside the end zone to run the ball back 100 yards before being knocked out of bounce by Benjamin Watson. I want that presence and awareness on my team when the opposition is trying to score in the red zone. So why isn't Champ recognized as well as Sanders? Sanders is great at selling himself. He's "Prime Time." He makes himself the center of attention and that's just his personality. Where on the other hand Champ is maybe a little more withdrawn, humble, yet still the confident play maker. He's not a vocal person but don't mistake his leadership. What he does on the field represents how he leads. Deions' "Prime Time" persona became larger than life. You had to know who he was and what he did and he made sure of it. "Prime Time" was a show. He became larger than himself but it all worked. He sold himself very well to the media and to the teams that wanted him on their team. Here's a great article by Jake Bailey from TheSportsStand.com that breaks down the numbers.
Other Champ vs. Primetime info:
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Comments - 2
... written by Rob Yardman, March 16, 2008
He may have been more of a "game changer" as you say, but when it comes to being a complete corner, Champ gets my vote. And watch the Watson clip again. He let up in the end. I will hand it to Watson for tracking him down though.
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Recently I've noticed a common discussion around the net in regards to Champ Bailey and Deion Sanders. I've seen a few blogs, articles and message board discussions comparing these two great players. Well, in my opinion, this is now a non issue. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: 
Chris