He might be new to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he isn’t new to the NFL—far from it. The Pittsburgh Steelers brought in CB Patrick Peterson in the offseason as a veteran presence while the secondary underwent a lot of changes. CB Cameron Sutton departed for the Detroit Lions in free agency and longtime S Terrell Edmunds signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.
They ended up restocking the shelves via the draft with Joey Porter Jr. in the second round and Cory Trice Jr. in the seventh round but needed a veteran to help the unit transition into the next era of the Steelers’ secondary. Thats where Peterson comes in. He is 33 years old, and he is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he has accomplished many of the things the Steelers were hoping for when signing him.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was asked what Peterson brings to the group off the field during his Wednesday coordinator media availability.
“I think veteran leadership, things that only time give[s] you, and he’s seen a lot of things that some guys maybe haven’t seen,” Austin said in a transcript of the press conference provided by the team. “He does some other things in terms of meetings. He’ll want to have some meetings of his own where he has guys in there and they’re working together through things. As players only. And that’s good. You have to have that type of leadership.”
As the defense has suffered injury after injury taking guys like Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander, Elandon Roberts, and Minkah Fitzpatrick off the field, it is critical to have a veteran presence helping keep the unit focused and playing together. Peterson has talked about his recent move to safety over the last couple weeks and stressed the importance of being in the middle of the defense. This allows him to be a central communicator more than when he was playing corner out on the edges of the field. The fact that he is holding these meetings with his position group only helps his ability to transfer that to the field.
“Joe [Haden] was like that,” Austin said. “When you have that type in there, no matter what happens with your group, no matter who’s there or not there, it keeps them together.”
There are many factors that have led to the defense keeping up its level of play despite all the injuries. The offense scoring more points is one of them, but the turnaround has also correlated with Peterson’s move to safety. In the three games prior to Peterson’s move, the defense was allowing 25 points per game. Over the last two games, that number is 17. Being without its top four safeties and top three inside linebackers should have made the unit worse, but the Steelers have figured out a way to maintain or even improve their level of play defensively. Austin credits Peterson for some of that success.
