Defensive backs are the toughest position to evaluate when it comes to covering receivers. They are tasked with sticking to their coverage assignment on every snap and are often unfairly judged by their mistakes. Their purpose -- and the height of their effectiveness -- is to prevent quarterbacks from ever looking their way.

That's where NFL Next Gen Stats and AWS step in with a new set of metrics: Coverage Responsibility , a family of models that better quantifies coverage roles and performance. We've used this framework to construct a midseason cornerback ranking, identifying which players are truly taking receivers out of the game on a snap-by-snap basis. Built with AWS, the model family reveals three things on every pass concept: the targeted receiver, which players were matched up

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