8. Seattle Seahawks: Devon Witherspoon, cornerback
It feels almost wrong or blasphemous to have the Seattle Seahawks' representative in the middle of a list like this, but this is a testament to just how good of a team the Seahawks have, and how good of a coordinator Mike Macdonald is.
That's not to say Devon Witherspoon isn't a great player in his own right. He's the 8th-best defensive star in the NFC, at least according to this list. But the Seahawks get weekly contributions from everyone on that side of the ball.
Witherspoon is their best player, no doubt. He actually had the highest grade of any cornerback from Pro Football Focus last season and had the 2nd-highest coverage grade in the league. Even though he has just two career interceptions, Witherspoon clearly impacts the game in so many different ways and might have been the best player on the field during the Seahawks' Super Bowl win vs. New England.
7. Carolina Panthers: Jaycee Horn, cornerback
There was maybe some concern early on in his career about whether or not Jaycee Horn was going to live up to his lofty NFL Draft status, especially considering he was taken before Pat Surtain II in the 2021 Draft, but he's really come around.
The Panthers know they have one of the best in the league with Horn locking down his side of the field. He's as dynamic as they come in terms of size, speed, and ball skills. Quarterbacks were almost better off throwing it in the dirt last year than throwing it Horn's direction. He had a career-high five interceptions, showing off those elite ball skills, and allowed just 48.4 percent of passes into his coverage to be completed.
The one area of his game that has to get cleaned up is missing tackles, because he was credited with 14 of those last season. If he can do that, he might jump into the top 3 of a list like this next year.
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