Who are those guys, anyway?

Local NFL fans certainly know by know who Marcus Trufant and Ken Lucas are. But how about Nick Harper?

OK, that was a tough one. Maybe Lenny Walls?

Nothing …

Ken Irvin?

Terry Cousin or Reggie Howard? We’ll give you a hint: they play for the same team. Powder blue and black. A cat on the helmet.

Neon Deion these guys are not. But they play the same position.

In fact, they represent that majority of the starting cornerbacks for the NFL’s unbeaten teams.

Even some of the names you might know – guys like Eric Warfield (Kansas City), Walt Harris (Indianapolis) and Denard Walker (Minnesota) – belong to players who aren’t exactly Pro Bowl shoe-ins.

As a test case, I listed the names of the starting cornerbacks for the five unbeaten NFL teams (not including the Seahawks, who have a bye this week) to a local football writer. The gouy, who has more experience covering the league than anyone else in Seattle, had heard of Warfield and Walker, but couldn’t recall their teams. The others may as well have been lock forwards in the New South Wales Rugby League.

Meanwhile, the four cornerbacks who started in February’s Pro Bowl are now playing for teams with a combined 5-6 record.

My first inclination was that perhaps the cornerback position had lost some importance around the league. Seahawk Shawn Springs, admittedly biased on the subject, said that’s just not true.

“Corners are huge, bro,” he said. “They’re huge unless you’re Tampa – unless you’ve got a huge (defensive) front like Carolina or Tampa. It will start to show up when you start playing really good teams.”

Sure, it’s early in the season. As Springs was quick to point out, the Vikings won’t stay unbeaten for long, meaning Irvin and Walker are unlikely to represent the NFC in the Pro Bowl.

But it’s one of those early-season trends that goes away from conventional wisdom. The thinking used to be that winning teams needed a Deion Sanders-like presence at cornerback to carry the defense.

“I’m not really sure there are any more Deion Sanderses,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said.

Springs, not exactly known for his humility, could think of only two NFL cornerbacks who could be relied upon to shut down the top opposing receiver every week. One was the Washington Redskins’ Champ Bailey. As for the other, we’ll give you a hint: his father’s name is Ron Springs.

With a relative dearth of shutdown corners, NFL teams have been built around solid defensive lines who can rush the opposing quarterback, thereby lessening the need for perfect coverage on the receivers for more than three or four seconds.

The prototype is in Tampa, where a solid defensive line and a defense (the Cover 2) that is designed to have safeties help corners in coverage have been mimicked but never matched.

“(Tampa Bay cornerbacks) Brian Kelly and Ronde Barber are good,” Springs said, “but you put them on a different team and they’re just average.”

Part of the reason for the lack of quality cornerbacks stems from peewee and high school football. The tall, fast players are now being turned into Randy Moss-sized receivers, while others are being bulked up and made into linebackers.

“Now speed is overruling everything,” Seahawks linebacker Anthony Simmons said.

The Seahawks have upgraded in that regard, too, adding Trufant in the draft. Along with Lucas, he gives Seattle a young secondary that will only get better when Springs returns.

Unlike places like Philadelphia and Buffalo, where cornerback play is a big key to the defense’s blitz package, the Seahawks’ defense can survive without its true shutdown corner.

As Seahawks offensive coordiniator Gil Haskell said of Seattle’s young cornerbacks this week: “Ray (Rhodes)’s system is to their advantage.”

But Springs, who is hoping for a big payday when he becomes a free agent in March, is quick to reiterate the importance of top corners.

“The teams that are real good in the end,” he said, “I’ll bet you they have good corners.”

Tennessee (2-1) at Pittsburgh (2-1), Sunday, 10 a.m.: These once-impenetrable defenses have each given up more than 21 points per game to this point, so don’t expect a 6-3 final score. McNair and Maddox play the game like the two robots in Terminator 3: neither one will stay down for long. That being said, this is one of the softer Pittsburgh teams. Pick: Titans, 24-19.

New England (2-1) at Washington (2-1), Sunday, 10 a.m.: The Patriots have so many injuries that John Hannah and Steve Nelson might have to come out of retirement. If the Redskins’ pass rush doesn’t improve, Bruce Smith might find himself in a retirement home. Expect another big day for the NFL’s rising tandem of Ramsey/Coles. Pick: Redskins, 31-24.

Kansas City (3-0) at Baltimore (2-1), Sunday, 1:05 p.m.: The Chiefs have piled up the points without much offensive yardage. The Ravens’ defense has curtailed the yardage but given up too many points. Throw the stats, and Priest Holmes’s hip problems, out the window. Pick: Chiefs, 19-13.