It hasn’t been the best start to his tenure as a Pittsburgh Steeler for veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson.
In Week One, Peterson allowed two touchdowns to San Francisco wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. In Week Two, Peterson gave up a big third-down catch to Cleveland wide receiver Amari Cooper and later missed a tackle on Cleveland tight end David Njoku on a first and 20, resulting in Njoku moving the chains.
Despite the struggles, Peterson remains inside the top 32 cornerback rankings in the NFL entering Week 3 from Pro Football Focus, sitting just outside of the top 20.
Peterson comes in at No. 22 ahead of the Week Three matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders on the road. Currently, he grades out as the 40th cornerback in football but has the 9th-best Successful Coverage Over Expected number in football.
“Peterson continues to rank highly in preventing separation, but his day was less active at the catch point on Monday Night Football. Peterson allowed two catches for 46 yards and no touchdowns but didn’t force an incompletion,” PFF’s John Kosko writes regarding Peterson’s ranking at the position entering Week Three.
On the year, Peterson has a PFF grade of 63.8 overall in 152 total snaps. That includes 87 snaps in coverage and 65 snaps in run defense. Currently, Peterson grades out at a 62.4 in run defense and a 63.2 in coverage. His tackling has been a mess though, sitting at a 29.6.
Against Aiyuk and the 49ers in Week One, Peterson provided some bulletin board material on his podcast “All Things Covered.” He stated that he was going to get an interception against San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy as the 49ers had some “tells” in the passing game. Peterson proceeded to break up two passes, but gave up the two touchdowns to Aiyuk, one of which was in tight coverage and was just a great throw and catch.
Then, in Week Two Peterson tried to bounce back against another elite-level route runner, this time in Cooper. For the most part, Peterson held his own, but a big sideline catch on an early third down with Peterson in tight coverage didn’t go his way. The catch-and-run by Njoku hurt quite a bit as well.
Through two weeks, Peterson has allowed six receptions on 10 targets for 92 yards and two touchdowns, yielding 15.3 yards per reception. It is still very early in the season, but that 15.3 yards per catch is on pace to be the most yards allowed per catch in his Hall of Fame career. He allowed just 12.4 yards per catch with Minnesota in 2022.
Additionally, his two touchdowns allowed on the season is on pace to surpass the six touchdowns he allowed the last two seasons combined in Minnesota.
Peterson hasn’t given up much separation in his coverage so far this season though, which is promising as he’s playing more man coverage than he has in the past two years and is doing so at 33 years old. That’s where the SCOE comes in from PFF. Better days are seemingly ahead for Peterson.
But his ranking is a bit puzzling right now, especially when looking at the rest of the PFF rankings. Somehow, Peterson finds himself ahead of names like New York’s Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed, arguably the best cornerback tandem in football, as well as a player like Martin Emerson in Cleveland.
