Two former Arizona Cardinals teammates, Patrick Peterson and Markus Golden, are now reunited as Pittsburgh Steelers. Last week, Golden signed with the Steelers, making this season his sixth one as a teammate of Peterson, previously playing together from 2015-18 and again in 2020. Because of their familiarity with one another Steelers general manager Omar Khan asked Peterson if Golden fits as a Steeler.
In the most recent episode of All Things Covered, Peterson told a story of how Khan approached him the day Golden visited and asked if he was “one of the guys.”
“I remember having him in the building right before signing, and Omar asked me, ‘Is he one of us? Is he one of the guys?'” Peterson said on the podcast he hosts with his cousin and former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden. “I said, ‘He’s one of the guys. And if you got any problems out of him, I got him.'”
Golden is a team-first guy and he knows his role. While the veteran outside linebacker isn’t a consistently big sack-numbers guy, with his season high total being 12.5 in 2016, he generates pressure often and is a great third option behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
After being burned in 2021 with the signing of Melvin Ingram and him not being content with being the third EDGE rusher, it doesn’t seem like that will be an issue with Golden. That concern though could be why Khan asked Peterson if Golden was “one of the guys” as he didn’t want another situation where Pittsburgh had to trade its primary backup EDGE rusher again.
Last year showed how important having a quality back up EDGE rusher is. Once Watt went down with a pectoral injury Pittsburgh struggled to create pressure and in turn the defense played poorly. Golden is one year removed of putting up an 11-sack season so it wouldn’t be shocking to see him revert to strong form. Even so, he won’t be seeing a huge chunk of snaps so a season of four to five sacks from a backup, which he is certainly capable of, would be excellent.
In Peterson’s short time as a Steeler he has exemplified great leadership ability. With him co-signing the signing of Markus Golden I expect he will be an important contributor and leader in the locker room.
