Note: Updated for Charles Woodson’s 2021 Hall of Fame selection.
On the defensive side in football, arguably the most important position after having a dominant pass rusher is a lockdown cornerback – by shutting down half the football field or the other team’s best wide receiver, an elite cornerback can effectively disrupt an opposing team’s entire offense. For well over a decade in the 2000s and early 2010s, Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson were two of the NFL’s elite cornerbacks (before Woodson made a seamless transition to ballhawking safety) on their way to the Hall of Fame in Canton. Between these two great defensive backs, with their essentially overlapping careers, an apt question to ask is:
Who was better – Champ Bailey or Charles Woodson?
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