Patrick Peterson’s exit from the Arizona Cardinals after a decade with the organization wasn’t pretty.
Three years later, a grudge against the organization remains. Now a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Peterson will get the chance to take out some anger and frustration against the Cardinals for the second-straight season, this time in Week 13 on Dec. 3 at Acrisure Stadium.
Peterson, appearing on his “All Things Covered” podcast with co-host and cousin Bryant McFadden Friday, listed the Cardinals as the matchup he’s most looking forward to in 2023. He added that picking off a pass against the Cardinals is the matchup against the QB — whomever that might be at the time — as the one he wants to intercept a pass against the most.
“I gotta go with the Cardinals being one of them [for obvious reasons, and then I gotta go with the Bengals and the Ravens,” Peterson said to McFadden regarding the matchups he most wants to intercept a pass in. “Both of those in division, and hopefully those picks will be meaningful in us winning a ballgame.”
Peterson had the chance at redemption against the Cardinals during the 2022 season while with the Vikings. The Vikings won, 34-26, and Peterson had one of his best games of the season, recording a grade of 81.0 from PFF, including a grade of 85.2 in coverage, good for some of his best single-game grades of the year.
After the game, Peterson spoke about how much the game meant to him, due to some messages he had received from fans, and the disrespect he felt he received from Arizona owner Michael Bidwell prior to his exit from Arizona.
Peterson also added after the game that he was still waiting for then-Cardinals general manager Steve Keim to call him after the two sides parted ways following the 2020 season, which he has criticized Keim for in the past. Peterson has said he’s lost respect for Keim.
Though Keim is no longer with the Cardinals, don’t expect that frustration with the organization he called home for a decade to disappear overnight. The Cardinals thought he was too old, too slow and on the downside of his career. Peterson has shown in the last two seasons that’s not the case.
Now with the Steelers he’ll aim to show that once again, this time in front of his new hometown crowd at Acrisure Stadium in early December.
