Help Wanted: Sticky and Fast Man-to-Man Slot Defenders

By Walter Mitchell

The biggest question that I have regarding Monti's decision to retain Nick Rallis as DC is ---> when are the Cardinals ever going to place NFL 21st century emphasis on playing sticky man coverage versus the likes of Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Puka Nacua and Christian McCaffrey?

Over the past 4 years, with each draft, I have been imploring the Cardinals to take the best possible man-to-man slot defender in the draft:

2022 - Trent McDuffie

2023 - Brian Branch

2024 - Cooper DeJean

2025 - Jahdae Barron

Yet, year after year, not only do the Cardinals ignore the slot CB need, absurdly doing so while drafting 7 CBs in the last 3 years, you would be hard pressed to find Cardinals' pundits and the vast majority of fans even listing slot CB as a team need.

Pundits and fans argue that the Cardinals solved the need by drafting Garrett Williams in the 3rd round of the 2023 NFL Draft. While Williams is a brilliant zone defender, he is not an above average man-to-man cover CB. 

My continued worry is that Nick Rallis is going to double down on his obsession for zone coverages, thinking that all he has to do is get the players to be better at it. 

Have a look at the NFC West quarterback passer ratings in the 6 games those offenses played last season versus Rallis' defense:

* 16-15 L --- @ SF --- Mac Jones --- 83.8

* 23-20 L --- SEA --- Sam Darnold --- 111,.4

* 44-22 L --- @ SEA --- Sam Darnold --- 111.8

* 41-22 L --- SF --- Brock Purdy --- 133.5

* 45-17 L --- LAR --- Matthew Stafford --- 131.2

* 37-20 L --- @ LAR --- Matthew Stafford --- 114.5 

These are passing clinics. 

Name one Cardinals' CB who played consistently sticky man coverage on the slot. 

You cannot.

Even in the closest game at SF, Ricky Piersall had a 100-yard game with Mac Jones at QB.

This season versus SF, the Cardinals will have to have answers for Christian McCaffrey, Rickey Piersall and Christian Kirk out of the slot.

The truth is --- Brock Purdy, Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford and their prolific receivers are way too good versus zone coverages. 

The Rams know they have to go man-to-man with the NFC receivers which is why they gave up

2026 First-round pick (No. 29)

2026 Fifth-round pick

2026 Sixth-round pick

2027 Third-round pick

To acquire All-Pro slot CB Trent McDuffie --- whom I was told repeatedly back in 2022 when I was touting him as a priority for the Cardinals' 1st round pick that "you don't use 1st round picks on slot CBs."

Oh yeah? In today's NFL?

if you can't cover the slot --- you gonna lose a lot of games. Just ask Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. 

So, what I have done for research's sake is to find the man coverage grades for all of the CBs and safeties who played 100+ snaps in the slot this past season.

You see --- it typically takes hundreds of reps for any CB to get good at playing sticky man coverage in the slot. 

Here are the results:

Cornerbacks:

* Avieon Terrell, CLEM --- 110 snaps --- 66.7 man-to-man coverage grade

* Keionte Scott, MIA --- 489 snaps --- 77.7 

* Treydan Stukes, ARI --- 380 snaps --- 83.2

* Chandler Rivers, DUKE --- 154 snaps --- 76.3

* Jalon Kilgore, SCAR --- 497 snaps --- 65.4

* Jadon Canady, ORE --- 346 snaps --- 80.4

* DeVonta Smith, ND --- 207 snaps --- 72.6

* Ceyair Wright, NEB --- 355 snaps --- 55.3

* Tyreek Campbell, TA&M --- 460 snaps --- 70.2

* DaShaun Jones, ALA --- 215 snaps --- 60.1

* Avery Smith, TOL --- 135 snaps --- 74.8

Safeties:

* Caleb Downs, OSU --- 146 --- 89,6 overall coverage grade (man and zone)

* Dillon Thieneman, ORE --- 118 --- 91.1

* Kamari Ramsey, USC --- 251 --- 77.0

* Bud Clark, TCU --- 313 --- 72.2

* Cole Wisniewski, TTU --- 100 --- 80.6

* VJ Payne, KSU --- 123 --- 74.1

* Lorenzo Styles Jr., OSU --- 223 --- 63.5

* Isaiah Nwokobia, SMU --- 129 --- 60.1

* Jalen Huskey, MARY --- 111 --- 83.5

* Louis Moore, IND --- 104 --- 83.5

* Jakoby Thomas, MIA --- 98 --- 89.1

* D.J. Singleton Jr., NEB --- 132 --- 65.9

* Ahmad Moses, SMU --- 230 --- 65.7

* Kendal Daniels, OKU --- 196 --- 79.2

* Dalton Johnson, ARI --- 237 --- 81.6

* Phillip Duman, UCF --- 211 --- 85.1

40 times --- Run Defense Grade 

* Keionte Scott --- 4.33 --- 91.2

* Treydan Stukes --- 4.33 --- 72.5

* Jadon Canady --- 4.35 --- 74.7

* Caleb Downs --- 4.40 --- 83.7

* Dillon Thieneman --- 4.35 --- 75.9

* Bud Clark --- 4.41 --- 83.1

Thing is:

Cardinals need two of am-to-man slot defenders and here's why:

LAR --- Puka Nacua, Davonte Adams, Jordan Whittington

SF --- Christian McCaffrey, Ricky Piersall and Christian Kirk

SEA --- Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Rashid Shaheed, Tory Horton