Remember Leon Hall?
The former Cincinnati Bengals cornerback was a first-round pick by the team in 2007 and played through the 2015 season there.
Hall always put up noteworthy tackle numbers and was one of the team’s better defenders against the run, never mind his prowess in pass coverage — he picked off 18 passes over his first four seasons alone. His play at the time made it clear we needed to better evaluate the impact of slot corners.
And that strive for evaluating inside corners continues today, with Pro Football Focus’ Kevin Cole releasing a new Plus/Minus metric to analyze the position.
Based on the findings there, Hall’s 2009 season ranks among the 20 best seasons of the PFF era.
In that 2009 season, Hall picked off six passes, had 23 passes defensed and posted 71 total tackles, so it isn’t hard to see why advanced numbers would smile on the effort.
If nothing else, it’s nice to see one of the more underrated, fan-favorite elements of that Bengals era get honored even more in hindsight.
