• A three-way battle for the top spot: Cooper DeJean edges out Sauce Gardner and DJ Turner with his strong play in the slot and reliable tackling. He ranks third in PFF coverage grade and fourth in advanced coverage grade when in man coverage.

• Sauce Gardner locking it down in man coverage: Over the past two games, Gardner has allowed no catches and forced two incompletions on two targets. The lack of targets stems from his ability to shut down opposing receivers and prevent separation at the best rate in the NFL. His 74.12% lockdown percentage leads the league, and he’s been tasked with running man coverage at the third-highest rate in the NFL at 49.3%.

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If quarterback is the most important position on the football field, then limiting the effectiveness of that player is the most important thing a defense can do.

A team can achieve this in two ways: it can pressure the passer to disrupt their timing, rhythm and accuracy, or it can shut down the opposing receivers.

Each week, after every NFL game is graded and reviewed, PFF will check in on the top cornerbacks of the 2025 season. These rankings will change drastically over the first portion of the season, as one interception, one missed tackle or one deep completion can significantly alter a player’s grade when the sample size is small. But as snap counts rise, the grades will stabilize and we’ll get a clearer picture of the league’s best cornerbacks. 

Last year, these rankings utilized PFF All-Coverage charting and data to rank the cornerbacks, providing insights into PFF coverage grades and our Successful Coverage Over Expected (SCOE) metric, which measures how well each coverage defender performed above expectations on non-targeted coverage snaps.

We grade every coverage defender’s ability to prevent separation, whether they are targeted on the play or not. These rankings utilize play-level normalization and expectation adjustments. After all, matching up with a receiver is more difficult than covering a running back, and playing man coverage is typically more difficult than matching in a zone.

Here are the top 32 cornerbacks in PFF’s advanced coverage grade after Week 7 of the 2025 season.