Charles Woodson- best NFL d-back ever?

I dislike questions like this. We love Woodson. He was a great Michigan player and is a great NFL player. He is the only primarily defensive blahblahblahblah Heisman. All that.

But a question like this forces an honest football fan to find fault with someone great like Woodson because we're talking about GOAT. So if I bag on Woodson for not being the GOAT DB it sounds like I'm minimizing who he is, when he is probably my all-time favorite Wolverine and a great player. 

Charles is not seriously in the conversation of best all-time defensive back. As mentioned by others, he has a significant chunk of what should have been the prime of his career basically buried in irrelevancy; when GB signed him more than one smart NFL analyst thought it was a stupid move because Woodson hadn't produced significantly for a while.

I don't think most NFL pundits would even call him the best DB of his era; Champ Bailey, Ed Reed, and Troy Polamalu have all had outstanding, game-changing careers over the same time period. 

But why worry about that? Woodson was a great player at Michigan whose NFL career is HOF-worthy (isn't that enough?) and more than justifies his Heisman selection. He led Michigan to the only national championship it has enjoyed in the lifetime of virtually any person on this board. He is great. 

That's enough for me.

Just to pick a contemporary, I think it would be difficult to argue Woodson is better than Champ Bailey. Woodson had a few average years in there - Bailey will retire as the most decorated CB ever, and has been excellent since the moment he set foot in the league.

I think so, but he did have a few down years in Oakland that hurt him.

However, it is without question that he is the coolest on the list -- as far as I know, he is the only one of them to have saved a guy's life and also have his own wine label.

You could make an arguement for just about everyone on this list as being the best DB in the past 25 years but, having watched all of them play ALOT I have to say Rod woodson and Deon Sanders where in a class of their own. Ronnie Lott was a punishing safety not a lock down cover guy. Rod woodson was a punishing tackler and a lock down cover and Deon was the best cover corner to ever play a game of football

 I wanted Charles to win the superbowl MVP so bad! How incredible would it be to have a college NC, the heisman, Defensive player of the year, Super bowl champion and a superbowl MVP.  Even without the MVP we won't see anyone with a better list of trophy and awards for a very long time.

I say Ronnie Lott is the best followed up Charles but Revis may make a strong case when his career is over barring any injury of course.

A point in Deion's favor: when Jimmy Johnson got him in Dallas he stuck him in a zone first defense. That's like giving Rembrandt finger paints.

Also, I'm not sure what position Everson Walls played at the end of his career in Cleveland, but at the end of his time in Dallas he was playing at safety, not corner. And for more than just a season.

Yes.  When combining both ability to play corner and safety, I give it to Charles, with Rod a close second.

As a shutdown corner in coverage, Primetime was probably the best. 

Charles Woodson will be a first ballot Hall of Famer, period.  He may not be the best ever, but he is in the conversation.   Primetime was overrated, great cover skills and return skills, but run support was laughable, not even remotely good.  My favorite moment was watching Marvin Harrison making Prime time look like 09-10 JT Floyd against Penn State.

Woodson is definitely a top 20 DB, but I don't know that he is even the best in his generation. Teams had/have to gameplan around Prime Time, Ed Reed, and Polamalu. These players were/are feared by opposing Offensive Coordinators and QB's alike. I don't know if Woodson has had that impact from start to finish in his career.