Call it proximity bias if you want, but Alontae Taylor had a bold prediction ready when asked about the recent performance of his New Orleans Saints teammates Kool-Aid McKinstry and Quincy Riley.

“Those are going to be, I think, the best duo in the league next season,” Taylor said.

Maybe best in the league is a tad ambitious, but the point remains: The future feels very bright at the moment for the Saints’ young outside corner tandem.

McKinstry is 23 years old and Riley is 24. Both have had moments this season where teams have taken advantage of their inexperience, but as the season has progressed, both are contributing in big ways to a suddenly stingy defense.

Coming into this Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers, the Saints have the NFL’s No. 6 pass defense, and they’ve been getting better as the season has progressed. Since Week 10, when they beat Carolina on the road, New Orleans ranks No. 5 in the NFL in opponent passer rating (69.0) and No. 1 in passing yards allowed per game (134.5).

The corners aren’t responsible for all of that, but they are of course a critical piece of it.

Take McKinstry, the 2024 second-rounder who took over as a starter midway through last season. He’s made his share of plays on the ball, logging team-best numbers in interceptions (three) and passes defended (10), but it’s been his physicality and his brain that have shown up lately.

He made two of the biggest defensive plays in the Nov. 30 game against Miami. There was his interception of Tua Tagovailoa, a play he made because of his athleticism but also his ability to process and recognize the play that was coming. And then, late in the game, he chased down running back Ollie Gordon from the backside of the play to drop him for a loss on fourth down and give New Orleans a chance at a go-ahead drive.

“Just a great trigger play by him,” defensive coordinator Brandon Staley said. “… You saw his instincts on display, and his play recognition, which are a couple of his top qualities. “

Then last week, against Tampa Bay, McKinstry contributed another fourth-down stop when he drove hard on a pass to Chris Godwin on the sideline. The Buccaneers receiver had essentially secured a catch that would have moved the chains, but McKinstry arrived with violence and jarred the ball free.

It hasn’t been a perfect season for McKinstry by any stretch. The Rams went after him with star receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, both of whom beat him for scores. The one explosive they’ve given up recently came with McKinstry trailing Falcons receiver Darnell Mooney on a 49-yard touchdown.

But the highs have been notable, too: McKinstry earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors earlier this season after picking off Giants rookie Jaxson Dart twice. 

“It’s really hard to play coverage in the NFL, no one should ever take that for granted, but that’s the job that we signed up for,” said cornerbacks coach Grady Brown. “There have been games where he’s played really well. There have been games where it felt like he played bad, and he really didn’t — he played maybe average on one play. But that’s the nature of our position.”

The important thing, to Brown, is that when McKinstry has been beaten, he’s often still been in position to make a play. “We can build on that,” Brown said.

On the other side is Riley, a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft. He emerged in the scouting process this year for the Saints as having some of the best ball skills among corners in this year’s draft, and that trait showed up early in training camp practices.

“He made some plays in practice, seemed to make a pick every few days,” said head coach Kellen Moore.

Riley once credited his ball skills with his background as a baseball center fielder, but Brown had a different explanation: Riley, Brown said, has a unique ability to track multiple things at once — a trait that helps put Riley in position to make plays.

“He can cover his guy and still see the quarterback,” Brown said. “Some guys try to do that, and they’re looking at the quarterback, and that’s an eye violation — they never see their guy.”

Riley opened the season playing almost exclusively on special teams, but he started carving out a role on the defense by Week 3. When opening-day starter Isaac Yiadom suffered a hamstring injury, the door opened and Riley never looked back.

He’s been effectively starting since Week 5, though he still comes off the field for Taylor when the Saints are in base defense. According to Next Gen Stats, Riley has allowed just 16 completions on 29 targets as the nearest defender this season, and opposing passers have a 62.0 rating when throwing his way.

Riley may not have opened the season as a starter, but he’s fully seized his opportunity and doesn’t look like a player who will give the job up any time soon. When Brown looks at Riley, he sees someone whose skill set marries well with what the Saints want to do defensively.

“This experience that he’s gaining right now is priceless,” Brown said. “It’ll be an exciting career for him if we stay on track.”