re: Where does Prime Time rank on the all-time NFL list?

Plus his cover skills were far beyond his peers.

You are easily swayed by hype and marketing. No, they weren't. Darrell Green, Wolfson, Bailey, Michael Haynes - just to name a few - were in his tier and they tackled. All this "Prime Time is the greatest cover corner the game has ever seen" and "he literally took away half the field" stuff is so overblown. Was he good? Yes. Is his stature as great as Deion would like you to believe? Not quite.

I'd rank him in the Top 5 for most Over-Rated players in NFL history.

But he was 8x first team all-pro, league defensive player of the year and gained 53 interceptions

Anybody under-valuing Primetime is nuts. No, Darrell Green, Champ Bailey etc were not in his tier as a cover corner. They were great, but not like he was.

He was tops as a cover, he blanketed Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin. He didn't just take his own man away, teams were afraid of throwing too much to other routes NEAR him, because he could come off his man and still make the play.

Soft on the run comes up because he faced the Saints, when Mora's offense was running Hilliard and Ironhead at him. Those guys beat up linebackers and safeties (Ronnie Lott said Hilliard gave him whiplash); you don't expect him to go high on Heyward do you?

Must've never seen him play. There's not one coach in NFL history that would play somebody who refused to tackle. Deion made plenty of big hits watch a highlight reel he wasn't the greatest tackler or the most physical tackler but he wasn't scared to tackle that's stupid. He was the greatest cornerback of all time and it's not even close the term shutdown corner refers to one man in history and that's Primetime there has never been anyone like him. As far as ranking him he's gotta be somewhere in the top 10-15 players of all time.

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He's a one trick pony. Make this about Rod Woodson and it's legit.

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Holy shite...I'm all for greater NFL perspective and a champion of football rules before the ban on contact...

But lets not go crazy...Deion is maybe the greatest athlete to ever play.

You could Deion on one side of the field and two receivers on the other side covered by 4 guys and Aikman wouldn't throw to the one receiver covered by one guy - usually Irvin when Deion was with the Niners.

Deion split the field in half. Deion's side and everybody's else side.

But agreed that's just for passing.

If you ran, you ALWAYS ran to Deion's side because he was a corner/punt returner/great athlete - he wasn't a DB - I call people like Ronnie Lott a DB...you can play corner and strong safety and free safety...

Deion wasn't that - he was a pure corner and athlete...and being that alone was good enough because he impacted the game so much.

Is he above players like Ronnie Lott or Charles or Rod Woodson? No.

I don't think so...but it's close...Deion was almost like the DB Gayle Sayers - he was really impressive in punt return and showed great flashes in coverage.

He's impossible to gauge because he was so phenomenal as an athlete.

He was a highlight reel as long as it wasn't tackling.

Reading comprehension, much? I acknowledged his talent. But he's way overrated. There were lots of HoF caliber CBs with cover skills on his tier that actually tackled. Mike Haynes may be one of the most underrated CBs of all time.

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Darrell Green

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might have been just as fast Deion. Seriously.. didn't he have some ridiculous 40 time??

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Wolfson

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the one with the mole or the one with clubbed feet as a kid?

Rod Woodson had an amazing career and I think he's a better football player than Deion was. He's easily one of the GOATs at the position and may just be the best.

Deion got more attention cause he was a two sport athlete and provided an extra dynamic with his punt returns for TD's.

Woodson returned kicks too I think but people usually just remember the TD's and Deion had more (returns anyway) I think.

Devin Hester passed up Deion in some categories though I believe.