The Pittsburgh Steelers are releasing CB Patrick Peterson, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Peterson signed a two-year deal with the Steelers last offseason, but the team is going in another direction after just one season. Peterson struggled at the beginning of the season before showing off some versatility and playing safety in addition to corner at the end of the season, and his play across the board improved. But Peterson had a $9.775 million cap number for this season, and the Steelers will look to allocate that money elsewhere.
Peterson will now look for his fourth team after beginning his career with the Arizona Cardinals and then joining the Minnesota Vikings prior to his stint in Pittsburgh. He served as a mentor for rookie Joey Porter Jr., who blossomed into one of the top cornerbacks in football as a rookie. The Steelers will now have to completely revamp their cornerback room around Porter, something they’ll likely look to do in free agency and the draft.
The move saves the Steelers $6.85 million in cap space prior to top-51 roster displacement. Cornerback Levi Wallace is also set to hit free agency, and it doesn’t sound as if he’ll be returning to the Steelers, either. That means the Steelers don’t have an experienced No. 2 corner on the roster, and while they have some promising young talent around Porter in Darius Rush and Cory Trice Jr., the team will now need to find someone it can trust to start alongside Porter.
Pittsburgh has been active so far this offseason in turning over its roster, also releasing C Mason Cole, QB Mitch Trubisky, P Pressley Harvin III, OT Chukwuma Okorafor and S Keanu Neal. Both Okorafor and Trubisky have found new homes, with Trubisky signing with the Buffalo Bills and Okorafor linking up with the New England Patriots. Peterson’s market will be interesting. His versatility could be intriguing to some teams, but ultimately his cap number was too high for the Steelers to swallow.
The Steelers are going to be active in free agency and the draft when it comes to rebuilding their secondary, and with a deep safety class in free agency the Steelers can likely sign a safety and then sign a cornerback while also targeting the latter position in the draft. It’s going to make the next week very interesting with free agency officially opening on March 13 and the legal tampering period starting on Monday.
