The Falcoholic
I know this series went dormant for a while, but with the draft and free agency in our rear view mirror, it’s time to kick things back up.
If you’ll recall, we ran this through with the best kicker, punter, returners, and sefies of the past quarter century; you selected Money Matt Bryant, Matt Bosher, Allen Rossum paired with Eric Weems, and both Jessie Bates and William Moore. Now we’re into cornerback, where there’s a competitive five man race to consider.
We’ll pick the top three, so vote for your favorite and hope for the best.
The raw stats: 250 tackles (5th), 4 tackles for loss (16th) 10 interceptions (15th), 2 interceptions returned for touchdowns (T-2nd), 85 pass deflections (1st), 1 forced fumble (way down there)
There was a long and spirited debate about whether Alford was any good (he was, if inconsistent), whether he was better than Desmond Trufant (I’m not starting that fight again), and so on. Already 25 years old in his rookie season, Alford spent just six seasons in Atlanta and seven seasons in the NFL overall, but he made them count.
He was always stellar at getting his hands on the ball, which helped mask some of his penalty problems and inconsistencies in coverage. But despite being frequently targeted in a prolific passing era, Alford held his own throughout his career, sandwiching a rough rookie and final season in Atlanta around some strong campaigns. Alford deserves his spot on this list for the overall work in his tenure, but his pick six of Tom Brady in a certain Super Bowl is the pinnacle of his career and one of my favorite moments in Falcons history in a vacuum.
The raw stats: 222 tackles (7th), 6 tackles for loss (T-10th) 13 interceptions (11th), 85 pass deflections (4th), 1 forced fumble (way down there)
Grimes was one of the more underrated cornerbacks of his era, and one of the great undrafted free agents of the past quarter century, period. A four-time Pro Bowler and one-time second-team All-Star, Grimes had 33 career interceptions and 13 in Atlanta, with the former giving him one of the top 200 totals in NFL history, and had several years where his coverage was pretty damn close to elite. Injuries plagued him in Atlanta and led to his exit—he missed at least four games in 2008 and 2011 and missed all but one game in 2012—but during his peak he could be a shutdown corner. No athlete’s wife has ever come to a player’s defense as regularly or as ferociously as Miko Grimes, too, which I have to say I appreciate a lot more now than I did whenever we wrote critically about Grimes’ play then.
The raw stats: 222 tackles (7th), 6 tackles for loss (T-10th) 17 interceptions (7th), 2 interceptions returned for a touchdown (T-2nd), 48 pass deflections (6th), 3 forced fumbles (7th), 2 fumbles returned for a touchdown (T-1st)
Talented and...
