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Antoine Winfield is Benjamin Button
Right now Winfield is 35 years old. At 35, most players would be happy to still be in the league at all (obviously excepting kickers, and punters), but Winfield is part of an even smaller group of 35+ players who are still starting for their teams. Just how small this group is is evidenced by the fact that Winfield is the oldest starting cornerback in the league (if the Packers had competent safeties, it would likely be Woodson, but still, the statistic is pretty significant). The point of this post is not, however, to simply point out that Winfield is old and starting. The point is to show that he is on pace to have the best year of his career.
If he continues on the pace that he is moving at, Antoine will have 16 passes defended, 5 interceptions, and an absolutely ridiculous (ridiculous as in it has never been done by a cornerback since tackles became an officially recorded statistic (fun fact:according to NFL.com, Antoine is tied with a few others for most tackles by a CB at 107)) 117 tackles. These are pretty darn good numbers for any cornerback of any age, for a 35 year-old they are amazing. What's even more amazing though is that these will all be career highs for Antoine. This is nearly unheard of. Most players begin to decline after the age of 30, at 35 they should be ready to quit, not having the best year of their career. It doesn't stop there, no, Antoine is not satisfied with having an incredibly rare performance for a player of his age. Antoine is, as of right now, PFF's top ranked cornerback (#4 in coverage and #2 against the run). This is incredible for a guy who has, throughout his career, generally gone unnoticed by those outside of Minnesota.
Fans of other teams are not afraid of Winfield and, I would assume, many don't even know who he is. Nevertheless, they should fear him as, after learning what I have about WInfield's performance this year, a strong case could be made for him as team MVP. He doesn't generally make extremely flashy plays, but Antoine Winfield is one of the hardest working players in this league and has been one of my favorite Vikings since he joined the team.
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