During the offseason leading up to the 2022 season, the ridiculous notion that Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs was overrated had to be addressed. After snagging 11 interceptions in 16 games for Dallas, the most since Everson Walls took down that total back in 1981, Diggs was being dinged for the amount of yardage he allowed. Pro Football Focus, which has plenty of merit in other circumstances, claimed Diggs had allowed over 1,000 yards in coverage during the year.

Diggs, who certainly gave up his share of big plays, was saddled with the reputation of being boom or bust, without context applied. First, other outlets didn’t assign nearly as much yardage blame to Diggs as PFF did. Second, just like garbage-time stats for QBs can mislead, the same goes for the corners they are throwing on. Third, there had to be a better way to quantify CB performance than what was out there. That led to the development of Adjust Net Yards Allowed per Coverage Snap.

Adjust Net Yards per Attempt, or ANY/A, is an advanced metric formula that translates touchdowns and interceptions thrown into yardage equivalents and has a ridiculously good correlation to victory. What we did was translate the formula to coverage to better qualify how corners were playing on a per-coverage-snap basis.

The Formula

The formula is as follows:

ANYA/CS: Adjusted net passing yards allowed per target = ((Passing Yards Allowed-Return Yardage) + (Passing TDs Allowed – Return TDs)*20 – (INTs)*45)) / (Coverage Snaps)

A full explanation of the process can be found in our 2022 offseason rankings, here.

Statistics Used:

Pro Football Focus: Coverage Snaps
Pro Football Reference: Interceptions, Targets, Yards Allowed, Touchdowns Allowed, Return Yards, Return TDs

A quick Diggs explainer

In those offseason rankings, Diggs rated fourth overall, with an ANYA/CS rating of 0.46.

How stable is the metric? Well while his ranking has dropped some, through four games Diggs’ 2022 score sits at 0.47.

While Diggs has greatly decreased the amount of yards he’s given up (from 57 per game in 2021 to 39 per game through four contests), he also hasn’t yet had the big returns, either. Last year Diggs scored twice to offset allowing four touchdowns and his 142 return yards negated a large chunk of the 907 he allowed (per Pro Football Reference).

So overall, the impact of his play on a per-snap basis is the same thus far as it was all of last season.

Week 5 ANYA/CS Rankings 57-51

57 NFL cornerbacks qualified for the metric, with the cutoff being appearing in at least 3 games through 4 weeks and seeing at least 120 coverage snaps.

57. Kyler Gordon, Chicago, 2.62 Adjusted Net Yards per Coverage Snaps
56. Kendall Fuller, Washington, 2.24
55. Carlton Davis, Tampa Bay, 1.99
54. Xavien Howard, Miami, 1.88
53. Anthony Brown, Dallas, 1.74
52. Derek Stingley, Jr. Houston, 1.74
51. Adoree’ Jackson, NY Giants, 1.73

Week 5 Rankings 50-41

50. Kristian Fulton, Tennessee, 1.66
49. Amani Oruwariye, Detroit, 1.63
48. L’Jarius Sneed, Kansas City, 1.56
47. Kindle Vildor, Chicago, 1.47
46. Greg Newsome II, Cleveland, 1.47
45. Marcus Peters, Baltimore, 1.31
44. Cameron Dantzler, Minnesota, 1.31
43. Roger McCreary, Tennessee, 1.26
42. Jonathan Jones, New England, 1.24
41. Ahkello Witherspoon, Pittsburgh, 1.21

Week 5 Rankings 40-31

40. Rashad Fenton, Kansas City, 1.15
39. Chidobe Awuzie, Cincinnati, 1.12
38. Eric Stokes, Green Bay, 1.06
37. Sauce Gardner, NY Jets, 1.04
36. Darious Williams, Jacksonville, 1.04
35. Steven Nelson, Houston, 1.04
34. Taron Johnson, Buffalo, 1.04
33. Nate Hobbs, Las Vegas, 1.02
32. Patrick Surtain II, Denver, 1.01
31. Eli Apple, Cincinnati, 0.98

Week 5 Rankings 30-21

30. Bradley Roby, New Orleans, 0.98
29. Jalen Ramsey, LA Rams, 0.95
28. Denzel Ward, Cleveland, 0.94
27. Tyson Campbell, Jacksonville, 0.92
26. Marco Wilson, Arizona, 0.91
25. Nik Needham, Miami, 0.90
24. Asante Samuel Jr., LA Chargers, 0.89
23. Emmanuel Moseley, San Francisco, 0.89
22. Marshon Lattimore, New Orleans, 0.89
21. K’Waun Williams, Denver, 0.88

Week 5 Rankings 20-11

20. Benjamin St-Juste, Washington, 0.86
19. Shaquill Griffin, Jacksonville, 0.81
18. Mike Hilton, Cincinnati, 0.81
17. Michael Jackson, Seattle, 0.81
16. Patrick Peterson, Minnesota, 0.78
15. Chandon Sullivan, Minnesota, 0.68
14. Stephon Gilmore, Indianapolis, 0.66
13. Ronald Darby, Denver, 0.54
12. Avonte Maddox, Philadelphia, 0.51
11. Trevon Diggs, Dallas, 0.47

Week 5 Top 10

10. Cameron Sutton, Pittsburgh, 0.42
9. Jaycee Horn, Carolina, 0.30
8. Jaylen Watson, Kansas City, 0.28
7. Bryce Callahan, LA Chargers, 0.24
6. Charvarius Ward, San Francisco, 0.24
5. Marlon Humphrey, Baltimore, 0.12
4. Darius Slay, Philadelphia, 0.12
3. Jamel Dean, Tampa Bay, -0.05
2. Tariq Wollen, Seattle, -0.14
1. James Bradberry, Philadelphia, -0.26

Notes

• Only corners who have appeared in at least 3 games and seen at least 120 coverage snaps qualify for the rankings.

• Negative scores are rare, but because interceptions count for 45 yards taken away from yardage allowed, we see this rare occurence for three players thus far this season.

• Does anyone talk about how good Jamel Dean is outside of Tampa? He finished second overall in 2021 and now sits third with an improved score.

• The following players composed the final 2021 Top 10:
  

• The following corners failed to reach the coverage snap threshold:
  

Full CB Rankings entering Week 5

Story originally appeared on Cowboys Wire