Is Charles Woodson, AFC’s defensive player of the month, greatest DB ever?
By now, Charles Woodson should be spending Sundays in a television studio over-laughing with everyone else on the NFL pregame show of his choosing.
The NFL isn’t built for 39-year-old men like Woodson to still be elite defensive backs. Heck, you’re pushing it at 30. It’s a young man’s game, and defensive back is one of the positions that is ruled by young men.
Only five defensive backs have ever made the Pro Bowl after age 35 (Brian Dawkins, Darrell Green, Rod Woodson, Jimmy Johnson and John Lynch … quite a list). A Pro Bowl at age 39? Ha, good one. That list is zero, of course.
Woodson might be the first one to do it. He was just named the AFC defensive player of the month for October. That is one of the most ridiculous accomplishments in the NFL this season, or for the past few seasons. Do you know how many defensive backs who are 35 or older have played at least one NFL game this season? Three. Detroit Lions cornerback Rashean Mathis, who is 35, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Terence Newman, who is 37, and Woodson (h/t to Pro Football Reference). That’s it.
So the oldest defensive back in the NFL — and only one other player is within four years of him — was the best defensive back in the AFC in October. That’s unbelievable.
What Woodson has done with the Oakland Raiders the past three seasons, when it seemed like he was just getting in a victory lap before retirement, has been startling and has led to a bigger question: Is Woodson the greatest defensive back in NFL history?
His argument is strong. He’s famously the only primarily defensive player to win a Heisman Trophy. He won defensive rookie of the year in 1998 and NFL defensive player of the year in 2009. Only four of the last 20 defensive players of the year were defensive backs (Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu, Bob Sanders and Woodson). Woodson is the only cornerback in that group. The year after Woodson won the defensive player of the year award, he was a key part of the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl championship team.
Woodson has been an excellent player for 18 years, which is incredible. He has 13 defensive touchdowns. His 64 interceptions ranks sixth all time, and he has added four in six games this year — after he suffered a dislocated shoulder in Week 1 but didn’t even miss a game because of it. He also has 20 career sacks, many of which came when the Packers used him as a versatile chess piece on defense to wreak havoc on offenses. Woodson had the ability to do whatever was needed of him in a defensive scheme, whether it was locking up a top receiver on the perimeter or blitzing from the slot. He played corner through 2011, then moved to safety and has been great there too.
So Woodson has individual awards (including that Heisman, which no other defensive player can claim), a championship, big-time stats, versatility, crazy longevity and has excelled at two positions. Try to find a hole in his list of accomplishments.
So who is the greatest defensive back ever? Ronnie Lott would get a lot of votes, as the defensive leader of the San Francisco 49ers’ dynasty. Ken Houston, Rod Woodson, Champ Bailey and Mel Renfro are the other four defensive backs to make at least 10 Pro Bowls. Deion Sanders would get a ton of support because he was so great in coverage. Paul Krause and his NFL-record 81 interceptions has to be in the conversation. So does Ed Reed, for all he did for the Baltimore Ravens in his career.
If you want to pick Rod Woodson, Lott, Sanders, or even someone else like Larry Wilson or Willie Brown as the greatest defensive back in football history, it’s justifiable. But just keep this in mind: Charles Woodson has as good of a case as anyone, and as October showed, he’s still not finished with that long, phenomenal resume.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
