After having no real answer against the passing attack of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in a 30-7 loss, especially against wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, Pittsburgh Steelers veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson is expecting an even more diverse, challenging test in Week Two on Monday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns.
Appearing on the latest episode of his podcast “All Things Covered” Tuesday with cousin and former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden, Peterson stated that he’s expecting more “wiggle and variety” from Cleveland’s wide receivers compared to what the Steelers dealt with against San Francisco.
That’s a bit concerning, considering the Steelers simply couldn’t cover Aiyuk and star receiver Deebo Samuel on Sunday, allowing 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to throw for 220 yards and two touchdowns on just 19 completions.
Aiyuk had a field day, generating eight receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 2.9 yards of separation per target while seeing 14.4 air yards per target, according to Next Gen Stats.
Now, entering Week Two, Peterson believes that Cleveland standout wide receiver Amari Cooper will be an even tougher test for the Steelers.
“With the Cleveland Browns receiver corps, they run more routes out of the route tree. Versus San Fran, like we talked about, there are more in-breaking routes, more digs, more bang-8s. I don’t know if it’s easier for the quarterback to see, or this or that’s just how the offense is structured, but it is what it is,” Peterson said, according to video via the All Things Covered YouTube page. “But with this group that we’re going up against Sunday, they’re gonna have a little bit more wiggle in their routes. They’re gonna have a little bit more varieties of routes, so we’re gonna have to make sure that we’re on our P’s and Q’s for sure, because we know how good of a route runner Amari is.
“He can make one thing look like another, especially in the red zone.”
Cooper is a dynamic route runner, arguably one of the best in the league. According to Next Gen Stats after Week One, Cooper generated four yards of separation per route run and averaged an impressive 16.3 air yards per target, numbers that both fall inside the top 10 at the position after one week.
After being used primarily as a flanker in Dallas, Cooper moved to an X-receiver role in Cleveland has and flourished. According to Matt Harmon’s Reception Perception from the 2022 season, Cooper’s 71 percent success rate vs. man coverage and 71.4 percent success rate vs. press were both the best marks of his career.
Cooper ironically ran more in-breaking routes last season than he did at any point in his career, running slants 21.8 percent of the time and digs 14.4 percent of the time. According to Reception Perception, Cooper’s success rate on those two routes were 78,.7 percent on slants and 87.1 percent on digs. Cooper also had an absurd 91.3 percent success rate on deep outs and an impressive 83.3 percent success rate on posts.
