Trent McDuffie's first season with the Los Angeles Rams has put him at the top of the position. His 97.1 Pro Football Network's NFL CB Impact Grade is the best of 104 graded cornerbacks through Week 7, and Max Chadwick thinks it should have him in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation.
Chadwick, an NFL analyst for PFN, broke down the five highest-graded cornerbacks of the 2026 season on Pro Football Network's YouTube channel. Two of them play for the Rams. The No. 2 corner is the Kansas City player Chadwick says had to step up after the Chiefs traded McDuffie.
Chadwick said McDuffie "has been everything that the Rams were hoping for when they traded for him this off season." In coverage he has been close to untouchable. Chadwick cited a 96.8 coverage grade, "five points higher, basically, than any other corner in football," along with a 22.5 passer rating allowed that ranks second in the league and two yards allowed per target, which he called the fewest in the NFL.
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By Chadwick's count, McDuffie has one interception and seven pass breakups. His 84.3 playmaking grade is the softest part of his profile, though Chadwick still put it in the top 20. "I mean, what else could you ask for from this guy? He has been unbelievable," he said.
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McDuffie has never graded this well. He finished the full 2025 season at 74.8, and Chadwick said he had been "at best top-20 cornerback in our system" before this year. Chadwick also said the 97.1 is tied for fourth among all cornerback seasons PFN has graded, and he believes it should make McDuffie a candidate for the league's top defensive award: "He should be up there for Defensive Player of the Year right now, honestly."
Nohl Williams sits right behind his former teammate with a 96 Impact Grade, second of 104 cornerbacks. Chadwick tied the Chiefs cornerback's season to the trade that sent McDuffie away. When a team moves a player like that, "you need your other corners to really step up … to replace that kind of production, and Nohl Williams has done that," he said.
Chadwick called Williams a third-round pick in 2025 who has "played at an elite level" in his second season. He cited a 90.7 coverage grade, third in the NFL, and a 95 playmaking grade that he said leads the league. Williams has also allowed a 43.5 passer rating, which Chadwick ranked ninth, and has seven pass breakups and an interception.
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Williams graded 77.5 for the full 2025 season, and Chadwick noted that ranked 42nd at the position. Chadwick said this year's 96 already counts as one of the 10 best cornerback seasons PFN has graded since 1999, just behind Stephon Gilmore's 2019, when Chadwick believed Gilmore won Defensive Player of the Year.
The Cleveland Browns' Denzel Ward is third with an 89.8 Impact Grade. Chadwick's case rested on Ward's playmaking as much as his coverage. He cited two interceptions, which he said rank fourth among cornerbacks, seven pass breakups and two forced fumbles, which he said are second-most at the position.
Chadwick also gave Ward an 87.1 coverage grade (sixth in the NFL), an 88.4 playmaking grade (eighth), a 61.5 passer rating allowed (17th) and 5.3 yards allowed per target. Ward graded 76.9 for the full 2025 season. Chadwick described him as a 2018 draftee who was a top-10 corner three straight years and again in 2023.
"Really looks like a career year for a guy who's been a really good player for a long time, but it could be his best year of his career this year in Denzel Ward," Chadwick said.
Josh Wallace is fourth with an 89.1 Impact Grade, and Chadwick said lining up across from McDuffie has made him a target. With the league's top-graded corner on the other side, offenses throw Wallace's way more often, and Chadwick said "he's responded really well."
Chadwick cited a 90 coverage grade that ranks fourth in the NFL, a 42.6 passer rating allowed that ranks eighth, one interception and five pass breakups. Wallace graded 73.1 for the full 2025 season. Chadwick added that the rest of the Rams roster has dealt with injuries, but the two cornerbacks have held up.
Isaiah Rodgers of the Minnesota Vikings rounds out the top five with an 88 Impact Grade. Chadwick said Rodgers barely edged out his teammate Byron Murphy, and he credited both corners for a defense he called one of the all-time units. He said Minnesota is allowing about 12 points per game, which by his count is the fewest since the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won the Super Bowl that season.
Chadwick said the secondary makes that possible because defensive coordinator Brian Flores blitzes more than any other play caller in the league. "To do that, you better trust your secondary to hold up. And when you have two corners playing like this in Isaiah Rodgers and Byron Murphy, they're going to hold up," he said.
Chadwick gave Rodgers a 91.9 coverage grade, which he said ranks second in the NFL, and a 36.1 passer rating allowed, which he put fifth. Rodgers also has one interception and four pass breakups. Because Minnesota sends so many rushers, Chadwick said, Rodgers plays a lot of man coverage with little safety help behind him. Through Week 7, that job still has him fifth of 104 graded cornerbacks.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
