How Many White Cornerbacks Are In The NFL?
We all know that the NFL is a predominantly black league. But what about the cornerback position? How many white cornerbacks are in the NFL?
NFL Teams
In the National Football League, a white cornerback is a player who lines up on the defensive side of the ball, usually covering the wide receiver. As of the start of the 2020 NFL season, there are 32 white cornerbacks in the league.
AFC East
-Buffalo Bills: 1
-Miami Dolphins: 1
-New England Patriots: 2
-New York Jets: 0
AFC North
-Baltimore Ravens: There are three white cornerbacks on the Baltimore Ravens. Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Carr, and Jimmy Smith.
-Cincinnati Bengals: The Cincinnati Bengals have two white cornerbacks on their roster. Dre Kirkpatrick and William Jackson III.
-Cleveland Browns: The Cleveland Browns have four white cornerbacks on their roster. T.J. Carrie, Terrance Mitchell, E.J. Gaines, and Phillip Gaines.
-Pittsburgh Steelers: The Pittsburgh Steelers have three white cornerbacks on their roster. Artie Burns, Joe Haden, and Mike Hilton.
AFC South
The AFC South is home to some of the NFL’s most storied teams, including the Indianapolis Colts, the Houston Texans, and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But how many white cornerbacks are in the NFL?
The answer may surprise you: as of 2020, there are only four.
Those four cornerbacks are Johnthan Banks (Houston Texans), Jason McCourty (New England Patriots), Sean Smith (Baltimore Ravens), and Tramaine Brock (Arizona Cardinals).
So why are there so few white cornerbacks in the NFL?
Well, one theory is that white players are simply not as fast as their black counterparts. And since speed is such an important attribute for a cornerback, this theory may hold some water.
Another theory is that white players are not given as much opportunity to play cornerback at the high school and college levels. This lack of opportunity may lead to fewer white players even considering the position when they enter the NFL draft.
Whatever the reasons may be, it’s clear that white cornerbacks are a rarity in today’s NFL.
AFC West
The AFC West is a division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League. The AFC West currently consists of four teams: the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oakland Raiders, and the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Broncos and Raiders both have one white cornerback each on their rosters, while the Chiefs have two. The Chargers do not have any white cornerbacks on their roster.
NFC East
The NFC East has some of the best white cornerbacks in the NFL. The division has a rich history of great players at the position. The Dallas Cowboys have had some of the best in the game. The division has seen a resurgence in recent years with the Philadelphia Eagles winning a Super Bowl.
Dallas Cowboys
As of the 2019 season, the Dallas Cowboys have two white cornerbacks on their active roster. These are Orlando Scandrick and Anthony Brown.
New York Giants
There are currently no white cornerbacks on the New York Giants roster.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference East division.
As of the 2019 season, the Eagles have fielded 19 different quarterbacks in their 83-year history. The latest quarterback to start for the team was Nate Sudfeld, who started against the Dallas Cowboys on December 29, 2019.
The Eagles have had 14 different head coaches during their 83-year history. Their first head coach was Earl “Buddy” Ryan, who coached from 1986 to 1990. The current head coach is Doug Pederson, who took over after Chip Kelly was fired following the 2015 season.
In 2019, the Eagles hiredWide receivers coach Mike Groh as their offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Justin Peelle as their assistant head coach and offensive line/running game coordinator Jeff Stoutland as their run game specialist.
The Eagles have used five different starting quarterbacks since 2017: Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, Nate Sudfeld, Michael Vick, and A.J. Feeley.
Washington Redskins
In the NFL, the Washington Redskins have had white cornerbacks play for them. Some of these players include Pat Fischer, who played for the team from 1961 to 1978, and Darrell Green, who played for the team from 1983 to 2002. As of 2020, there are no active white cornerbacks on the Redskins roster.
NFC North
Chicago Bears- The Chicago Bears have two white cornerbacks on their roster, Prince Amukamara and Kyle Fuller. Amukamara was signed by the Bears in 2015 to a one-year, $7 million contract. Fuller was drafted by the Bears in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Chicago Bears
As of the 2019 NFL season, the Chicago Bears have zero white cornerbacks on their roster.
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL), and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and called the Portsmouth Spartans, the team began play in 1929 as an independent professional team. For the 1930 season, the Spartans formally joined the NFL as the other area independents began shutting down. Despite success within the NFL, they could not survive financially and resumed playing as an independent from 1936 until 1953. In 1937, they became a single-entity ownership under George A. Richards; after World War II ended and many players returned from service, he bought several other independently owned teams to form what eventually would become the NFL’s modern-day Divisional structure. The Lions have won four NFL Championships (1935, 1952, 1953, 1957).
Green Bay Packers
Since the NFL began using only white paint for yard lines and end zones in 1958, there have been very few African American cornerbacks in the league. Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer Herb Adderley is one of the most notable early examples. In fact, it wasn’t until 1967 that an African American player (Mel Blount of the Pittsburgh Steelers) was named first-team All-Pro at cornerback.
Today, the Packers still don’t have a single African American cornerback on their active roster. In fact, there are only four teams in the NFC North division (which includes the Packers) that have at least one African American cornerback on their roster: the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, and Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League (NFL) as an expansion team in 1960, and first took the field for the 1961 season. The team competes in the National Football Conference (NFC) North division.
NFC South
The New Orleans Saints have two white cornerbacks on their roster, Patrick Robinson and Justin Hardee. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have one, Ryan Smith. The Carolina Panthers have zero. The Atlanta Falcons have two, Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Desmond Trufant.
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined the NFL in 1965 as an expansion team, after the NFL offered then-owner Rankin Smith a franchise to keep him from joining the rival American Football League (AFL).
In their 53 years of existence, the Falcons have compiled a record of 368–446–6 (.452), winning division championships in 1980, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2012, and 2016. The Falcons have appeared in two Super Bowls, the latter during the 1998 season Super Bowl XXXIII. They lost both—the first during Super Bowl XVIII to the Oakland Raiders and Super bowl LI against New England Patriots.
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The team colors are black, panther blue, and silver. Their home stadium is Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte. The Panthers are the only NFL team to have played in the Super Bowl in their home market.
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Saints currently compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The club joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Seattle Seahawks.
In 2002, the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII, their first Super Bowl championship and their first championship since winning the NFC Central in 1979. They returned to the Super Bowl in 2007, but lost to the New York Giants.
Since then, they have failed to make the playoffs on nine occasions and had six head coaches fired. As of 2019, the Bucs have only made it back to the playoffs twice under head coach Jon Gruden (in his first year with the team in 2001 and again in 2020). They are also one of two teams that have never played a Super Bowl on their home field (along with the Detroit Lions).
NFC West
The Seattle Seahawks have the most white cornerbacks in the NFL with four. The San Francisco ers, Los Angeles Rams, and Arizona Cardinals each have two.
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Cardinals were founded as the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898, and are the oldest continuously run professional football team in the United States. The Cardinals play their home games at State Farm Stadium, which opened in 2006 and is located in Glendale, Arizona.
The team was established in Chicago in 1898 as an amateur football team and joined the NFL as a charter member club on September 17, 1920. Along with the Chicago Bears, the club is one of two NFL charter member franchises still in operation since the league’s founding. (The Green Bay Packers were an independent team until they joined the NFL in 1921.) The club then moved to St. Louis in 1960 and played in that city through 1987 (sometimes referred to as the “Big Red” or the “Football Cardinals”). Before the 1988 season, Bill Bidwill, who had owned variants of the team since 1932, announced plans to move it to Tempe, Arizona (a suburb west of Phoenix), citing disappointment with attendance at Missouri’s Busch Memorial Stadium despite being one of that state’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas at that time. The move was approved by 24 of then-28 NFL owners at a special league meeting on October 6, 1987; Bidwill subsequently became vice president/director of stadium development for
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team that play in the National Football League (NFL). They are based in the Greater Los Angeles Area, and compete in the NFC West division against the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks. The Rams franchise was founded in 1936 as the Cleveland Rams in Cleveland, Ohio. The franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1946 following owner Dan Reeves’ purchase of the team. In 1994, the franchise returned to St. Louis, Missouri. The Rams franchise remained in St. Louis until the end of the 2015 NFL season when they again returned to Los Angeles.
The Rams play their home games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams are currently owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), which is controlled by American businessman Stan Kroenke. The general manager is Les Snead and the head coach is Sean McVay.
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team located in the San Francisco Bay Area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The team plays its home games at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, which it shares with the Santa Clara Broncos of the Pac-12 Conference. The 49ers joined the NFL in 1946 as a member of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and became part of the NFL in 1949 when the leagues merged.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. They joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Seahawks are owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and are currently coached by Pete Carroll. Since 2002, the Seahawks have played their home games at CenturyLink Field, located south of downtown Seattle. The Seahawks previously played home games in the Kingdome (1976–1999) and Husky Stadium (1994, 2000–2001).
