It’s a headline to rankle many Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Patrick Peterson? Too old, too slow, too over the hill. I wasn’t someone losing sleep over Peterson’s release back in March though it felt mildly surprising. But as the Steelers get ready to build their roster and prepare for Week 1, they enter another season without clarity in the slot. A recurring theme since losing Mike Hilton ahead of the 2021 season, Pittsburgh’s as messy in the middle as it is anywhere.
That’s why Peterson should come back. To be clear, not to play outside corner. Those days are done. He is too slow there to turn and run on the outside with these young buck receivers. At this point, I think Peterson even realizes that, warming up to safety and not ruling out the idea during the offseason so long as he had prior warning of what he was signing up for. He’s also talked up playing slot corner, believing he could “excel” there.
For Pittsburgh, he’d be the best option at slot corner and some hybrid safety. Beanie Bishop Jr. was the apple of everyone’s eye early in training camp, soaking up more first-team slot reps than anyone expected, myself included. While he made a couple of impressive plays, his performance was overstated, not quite as good as some made him out to be. An injury caused him to miss the Buffalo Bills game, and he didn’t log action until the second half of yesterday’s loss, a non-descript game against the Lions’ third- and fourth-stringers. Thomas Graham Jr. was my camp darling but his in-stadium play was not strong enough to rubber stamp him on the 53, let alone a defensive role.
It leaves Pittsburgh with few internal options. And the season is approaching fast. The Steelers need someone who can get on the moving train. That’s one reason why Peterson is attractive. He’s high IQ and obviously knows the system, Pittsburgh’s coaching staff and scheme unchanged from where he left it a year ago. Football conditioning is a concern but if Peterson is signed say, Wednesday, he’ll have a handful of practices to get his legs under him again. Remember, he’s playing slot corner. He’s not having to cover vertically as much and isn’t playing every single snap, helping to manage those old bones the first few weeks of the year.
Adding Patrick Peterson would likely create another committee approach. Bishop would be an option on run downs, first and second down, feisty and aggressive against the run. Peterson would step onto the field for those critical third downs and obvious passing situations to get the Steelers’ defense off the field and close out halves and games.
There’s another important element Peterson brings. Safety rotation. In those dime packages, those third and longs, those late-game moments where Pittsburgh is clinging to a lead, the Steelers like to get creative with their post-snap rotations. Show a two-high shell pre-snap but spin down Minkah Fitzpatrick, the team’s best ball hawk, to present a different post-snap picture for quarterbacks and receivers to read. That makes Fitzpatrick and the Steelers’ coverage harder to identify and it’s been effective for Pittsburgh over the years.
But to move Fitzpatrick, someone has to spin with him. If Fitzpatrick is going to drop down and not play deep-half or the middle of the field, someone else has to. Pittsburgh doesn’t have that guy. At least no one eligible to play. Cam Sutton can do it in abundance, and he spent almost all the summer playing safety, not corner, but he can’t hit the field until Week 10. Pittsburgh’s other options? Cory Trice Jr., Bishop, Graham? They’re not suited for that in part because of their youth, the team not at the point where it is comfortable adding that to their plate, and they don’t really have that skill set. Trice is a former safety but with his rookie year wiped out, he’s just too hard to trust to be able to disguise and get to his spot after the snap.
It’s a hat Patrick Peterson can wear. He spent the last six weeks of 2023 playing safety full-time after Pittsburgh got rocked with injuries and Damontae Kazee’s suspension. With confidence, Peterson can align in the slot and rotate with Fitzpatrick. And Peterson’s lack of athleticism is mitigated playing safety.
The team could add a different external name, someone on a roster who gets cut by Tuesday’s deadline. But they’d be new to the system and would have to be trusted with valuable snaps. Pittsburgh tried that with Desmond King II last year. He couldn’t pick up the playbook, played one snap – a touchdown – and was promptly cut.
Is this the 100 percent ideal thing? No. That option doesn’t exist and won’t exist until the Steelers find a true replacement for Hilton. A strong and steady all-situations slot corner. Peterson is the best they have to do the things they need to win on possession downs. And maybe he only does it until Week 10 when Sutton, who would be the stronger option, returns. But who knows how the roster looks by then, how injuries and performance impact things.
All that matters is what they have right now. Or what they don’t have. They’re missing key skill sets in the slot. Patrick Peterson is the immediate answer.
