Cornerback

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A cornerback (also referred to as a corner) is a position in American and Canadian football, more broadly classified as a defensive back. Widely accepted as being the most difficult of all the positions, the modern cornerback is ideally very fast, agile, and has good football instincts. Like any defensive player, he must be able to react faster than his opponent, since he does not have the luxury of knowing where a play is going to go. Essential skills for a cornerback include jamming, backpedaling, jumping, shadowing his man, anticipating a pass route, reading the quarterback, and tackling.

Most modern NFL defensive formations use four defensive backs (two safeties and two corners); CFL defenses generally use five defensive backs (one safety, two defensive halfbacks, and two corners). A corner's responsibilities vary depending on the type of coverage called. Coverage is simply how the defense will be protecting against the pass. A corner will be given one of two ways to defend the pass (with variations that result in more or less the same responsibilities): zone and man-to-man.

In zone coverage, the cornerback is responsible for a particular area of the field. A zone may consist of any number of areas such as the "deep third", (the deepest one-third of the field in a "3 deep zone"). In a "3 deep zone" (aka "cover 1"), each cornerback is responsible for covering his prospective "deep third" (the outside third, hence the term corner) of the field while a safety ( usually the free safety ) covers the "middle third". Another type of zone coverage is called "cover 2" or a "2 deep zone".

Although usually the corners' duties reflect one another in your most basic garden variety 2 deep coverages, many variations of the 2 deep zone exists. For example, one variation allocates the weak-side cornerback (eg. the "left cornerback") to cover half the field in order to allow the strong safety to do other things or simply to provide the offense with different looks. The safety's job is also to cover half the field, the other half of course. The strong side cornerback (eg. the "right cornerback") may be in a variety of different alignments which may include "loose man", "man-under", or "man-up". Although these are one-on-one coverages, more often than not his responsibility is usually limited to an initial funneling and subsequent drop back into a zone called the "void". This is a pie shaped slice of field included with your most basic 2 deep zone coverage. One interesting aspect sometimes encountered in cover 2 is that it is possible for one corner to be in a zone coverage where he funnels and drops into the void, while the other corner is in man coverage. However, your basic garden variety 2 deep zone usually employs the two safetys to share half the field responsibilities, with the two corners funneling.

[edit] Single or Man Coverage

In man coverage, the cornerback is solely responsible for the receiver across from him, usually the offensive player split farthest out. In man coverage, rarely is the corner tasked with keeping his assigned wide receiver "inside" of him. For example, for man-coverage in the "red zone" (an area between the goal-line and the twenty-yard line) its better to prevent the receiver from going inside (towards the middle of the field such as in a crossing route or a quick-post) because these routes are difficult to stop, especially when there's a lot of traffic on the inside. Although illegal, defenders are easily "picked" by opposing receivers and sometimes by their own teammates. To avoid this, it is favorable for cornerbacks to line up close to the line discrimmage if the ball is inside the 5 yard line, and force the receiver toward the sideline (outside) without violating the 5 yard no touch rule.

[edit] See also

• Category:American football cornerbacks
• American football defensive schemes
• Cornerback defense