We may have been too quick to forget just how good Darrelle Revis is.
Richard Sherman became the self-proclaimed best cornerback in football while Revis was injured and later trapped in an ill-suited zone-heavy defense in Tampa Bay, but now with the Patriots and fully comfortable with the system, Revis is back at his best and is still the best corner in the NFL.
With both Revis and Sherman in mind, it's important to realize that there is really no such thing as a true "shutdown" corner. Even the best guys will give up some catches, and just because we can point to a play in which a guy got beaten doesn't mean they still aren't the best around. By definition, cornerback is a position of defending rather than attacking, and what defines the best guys is how successful their defense is, not whether they are perfect. How much can the best guys limit the best receivers? If they can't stop them from catching everything, can they at least limit the damage and make it a dangerous proposition for the quarterback to target his best receiver?
That's the key to elite cornerback play in the NFL.