I think you're underselling the talent the Patriots have had at cornerback.

Ty Law
Asante Samuel
Malcolm Butler
Stephon Gilmore
Aqib Talib
Devin McCourty
Logan Ryan
Darrelle Revis

None of them are Deion, but nobody is. They've generally always been solid to great at corner.

He's a really good player, would hope they can lock him up to a nice deal soon.

Good #2 who can be a number 1 on a limited basis, but isn’t a true #1. That’s a hell of a steal by Veach.

I suspect more teams will do what we are with this new league. Having an awesome corner means nothing anymore if you don’t have a quality 2, 3 and 4.

The best plan is to try to get as many decent #2’s as possible while drafting quality at the position.

I'd argue Ward is deserving of that list if he puts together another year like this one. We only allowed 1 WR to hit 100 yards this year. I had no idea - which speaks to how quietly Ward put together a good year.

Did he get lasik?

I missed this story

Just based on last season (and assuming Ward plays about as well in 2020), yes he's a CB1. I don't know how anyone could think differently.

Is he Deion Sanders? No, of course not, and probably will never even be Jalen Ramsey, but so what? In the league, IMO, I think he's definitely in the top 10-14. Did he have some bad plays? Yes, most definitely, but I'm struggling to remember a game where he just got hosed all day long.

I still think he lacks some athleticism of the very best corners, but he's pretty darned good in my book. And I'm reasonably certain he'll be even better this season.

I remember going to a Denver game and we were winning. And the final two drives Manning literally only threw at Marcus Cooper. As long as we have enough depth to prevent a situation like they I’m happy.

I do think Ward is a #1. He might not be a top 10 CB but in this defense we are more than OK with him. I like the approach of drafting CB’s with size and athleticism. Get them to buy in and you’re golden. We don’t “need” to rely on our defense, we just need them to allow Mahomes to win. And we are set up much better on defense than we were in the Vermiel era.

I lean towards this.

It may be that I'm just not remembering it, but I can't recall him getting toasted by anybody all season. I mean, he gave up a catch here or there, but nothing egregious.

And we play a LOT of man, although the coverage disguises in the middle of the field are helpful.

I see no reason at all, barring injury, that this won't be a top 10 defense.

With the offense we have, we should be near unstoppable.

Barring injury of course.

His worst game during the regular season was Week 1 @ Jax, with most of what he gave up coming in garbage time. He was nails after that. Honestly, I think his struggles against Hopkins and Fuller in the divisional round stand out disproportionately in our memory (as poor playoff performances tend to do).