Steelers will need veteran acquisition to live up to his latest ranking
The Pittsburgh Steelers may be approaching the season on the outside looking in according to playoff odds, but internally, they believe they can achieve greatness. In order to exceed national expectations, they will need to hit on their free-agent signings and draft picks. According to PFF, one of those free-agent signings is still at the […]
The Pittsburgh Steelers may be approaching the season on the outside looking in according to playoff odds, but internally, they believe they can achieve greatness.
In order to exceed national expectations, they will need to hit on their free-agent signings and draft picks.
According to PFF, one of those free-agent signings is still at the top of his game, something the Steelers hope to witness this fall.
PFF analyst Sam Monson recently ranked the top 32 cornerbacks in the NFL, with newly signed veteran and future Hall of Fame CB Patrick Peterson coming in at 31st overall. Before you think that's a slight though, let me explain.
For one, Peterson is 32 years old, which while young in real life, it may as well be retirement age for NFL cornerbacks. The more important context though, is that there are a minimum of 64 starting corners in the league, and potentially more as modern defenses use nickel packages (an extra corner or safety) as their base defense in today's NFL.
That means PFF views him as a number one corner still, beating out numerous number two CBs across the league. And if you watched any of the Vikings secondary last season, you would likely agree. Monson knows as such, stating the following about Peterson:
Peterson had a huge bounce-back season in 2022 for the Vikings. He finished with a 77.8 PFF overall grade and five interceptions, the most he has recorded in a single season since 2012. At this point in his career, he is better in zone coverage than he is playing man to man, but he showed that he is still capable of very high-level play if he can be protected a little within the scheme.
And while I largely agree with Monson, the truth is the Steelers ran the eighth most amount of man coverage last season, something he doesn't think Peterson should be doing at this stage of his career.
But in reality Pittsburgh doesn't play a ton of true man-man coverage or what we refer to as cover-one and cover-zero looks in the scheme world. Instead, they play a variation of cover five, which is when everyone underneath (corners, linebackers) are in man coverage, but the safeties are playing overtop as if it was a normal cover two zone.
Between their selections at corner in the draft, (Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr.) and other free agent signings like Chandon Sullivan, the Steelers have indicated that they plan to stay true to that philosophy, maybe even playing more true zone, sticking to these corners strengths.
Either way, Peterson will be in Canton one day. His resume is easily one of the best of his generation as the shutdown corner has been lights out dating back to his days at LSU and even before.
The Steelers just hope he has one or two of those runs left in him.
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