If you were one of the ones foolish enough to believe that the Pittsburgh Steelers would trade for Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson, I have some news for you on this Wednesday that will surely upset you.
Peterson released a statement on Wednesday indicating that he’s committed to the Cardinals organization and thus not demanding a trade.
“I’ve been incredibly frustrated with how the season has gone,” Peterson wrote in his statement. “But my energy is 100% focused on being part of the solution & helping us turn this around. I’ve never shied away from a challenge before and I’m not starting now. I have always given my all to the Cardinals organization, my teammates & fans. That is what I intend to do for the years to come. I am an Arizona Cardinal, and my focus is on this week’s game.”
Despite a few media reports over the course of the last several days stating the Cardinals were fielding trade offers for Peterson, the team’s front office continued to say for the last week or so that the cornerback wouldn’t be dealt by this year’s deadline.
Even if the Cardinals were interested in dealing Peterson, the price to acquire him would have been extremely high and even his cousin, former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden, said as much during a Tuesday radio interview with a Pittsburgh station. In summation, the Steelers were never going to acquire Peterson from the Cardinals via a trade and now it looks like the same goes for the 30 other NFL teams.
For now, I’m sure those Steelers fans wanting the team to trade for Peterson will move on to hoping the team will acquire one of two other rumored available cornerbacks, Gareon Conley and Janoris Jenkins, from their respective teams, the Oakland Raiders and New York Giants thanks to a not-so-trustworthy Tuesday report from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports that named Pittsburgh as one of handful teams exploring multiple trade options with this year’s deadline quickly approaching.
Personally, l don’t believe the Steelers have any interest in acquiring either Conley or Jenkins right now. On top of that, I’m not convinced the Raiders will even deal the former before this year’s deadline to do so.
