The Pittsburgh Steelers signed veteran CB Patrick Peterson to a two-year, $14 million contract a year ago. Like many veterans, he faces the prospect of seeing just a portion of that contract. Even if he does return in 2024, he may not come back as a cornerback.
He’s open to that. In fact, he communicated on his All Things Covered podcast, that he’s open to a lot of things. Peterson knew when the Steelers signed him last year that they intended to expand his repertoire and he supported that. There’s only one place he doesn’t want to be.
“As you saw this year, I’m open to playing wherever, whenever, with whoever”, he told his co-host, cousin Bryant McFadden. He pointed out there was “not a position that I haven’t played on the football field” last season. “Wherever I can be to help the team, I’m all for it.
“Except for the bench”.
He said that with a laugh, and McFadden shared that with him, but he really wasn’t joking. He’s coming back in order to play, not to be a player-coach. He fully embraced the role of mentoring Joey Porter Jr. a year ago, but he still lined up.
In all, Peterson played 97 percent of the Steelers’ defensive snaps, 1,096 of them. He started games at both outside cornerback and, by necessity at the end of the year, at safety. The Steelers also exercised his ability to line up in the slot, and he spent time in the box near the line of scrimmage as well.
“I played nickel, played penny, played safety, played corner, played dime”, he claimed, rattling off his responsibilities. “There’s been some times you see me at damn linebacker”. And he said that he did it all with a smile on his face.
That’s partly because he understands where he is in his career. Peterson knows he’s an “old” starting outside cornerback. He even said in January he was glad Porter took the top cornerback responsibilities off his plate. He said he was getting “a little bit too old to be doing that”.
Still, the Steelers, and even Peterson, understand his ability to sustain outside play is questionable. If he’s not starting on the outside, where he is playing? And how often? And how much justifies his $7 million base salary?
Peterson finished the season with 42 tackles, two interceptions, and 11 passes defensed. He seemed to transition well on the whole in coverage at safety, but tackling gave him issues. I think he may be best suited to a coverage-heavy nickel role if the Steelers do bring him back.
Levi Wallace, James Pierre, and Chandon Sullivan are all pending unrestricted free agents. Beyond Porter and Peterson, the only cornerbacks remaining from 2023 are Cory Trice Jr. and Darius Rush. Both are 2023 draft picks; Trice, their own, tore his ACL in training camp.
They need an outside cornerback. That probably won’t be Peterson, not on a full-time basis. But will he stay in Pittsburgh? Because he’s not coming back to ride the bench.
