One of the more underrated Minnesota Vikings of the past 25 years is receiving some love from Pro Football Focus for his exceptional play.
Antoine Winfield, who played cornerback for the Vikings from 2004-12, was named to the All-PFF team, which is celebrating the best players in the league since 2000. His 94.5 career PFF grade ranked second among all cornerbacks. Other corners included on the list were Richard Sherman (94.8) and Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis (94.4).
Advertisement
PFF takes note of his prowess in both the run and pass game. Despite standing 5-foot-9 and weighing 180 pounds, Winfield wasn’t afraid to throw his body around to terrorize running backs in the backfield. Says PFF:
Winfield’s NFL career began in 1999, though even his seven remaining seasons in the PFF era yielded one of the best career marks of all time. He was among the 10 highest-graded players for his position in five out of seven years, and the top-graded player at his position three times between 2006 and when he retired in 2012.
While Winfield owns a top-10 PFF coverage grade all time (92.3), where he’s unique on this list of cornerbacks is that he also owns the best PFF run-defense grade (94.7) out of 355 qualifiers at the position since 2006. Winfield’s 107 run defense stops are tied for the second most of all time among cornerbacks, while his 2.47-yard average depth of tackle against the run ranks as the best mark among 137 qualifiers since 2006.
Although the defensive line gets most of the credit for the Vikings’ having the league’s best run defense every season from 2006-08, Winfield also played a role in that. He had several games where he single-handedly took over, including wins over the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints in 2008.
Despite intercepting 27 passes, recovering 11 fumbles, and registering 7.5 sacks, Winfield only made three Pro Bowls during his 14-year career. He may have gotten more notoriety now with the ever-growing popularity of PFF. But it’s good to see one of the most dependable Vikings of the past get the recognition he deserves for his stellar play.
This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: One Vikings DB makes PFF’s All-Time team from past 25 years