The Arizona Cardinals have four current players on their roster who made Pro Football Focus’ list of the top 101 players of last decade, from 2010-2019. Cornerback Patrick Peterson is one of them.
It should come as no surprise that he is on the list, but fans might not believe he ranks where he should.
He comes in at No. 54 overall.
As a rarely gifted corner, Patrick Peterson was regularly given assignments that were much tougher than the ones most corners were given, which had the knock-on effect of dragging down his PFF grade compared to some players. Granted, there was also some ugly play in there, but for the entire decade, Peterson allowed just 55% of passes thrown his way to be caught, and he would regularly track receivers all over the field, including into the slot. In 2015, he had the best mark in the NFL in terms of yards surrendered per snap in coverage (0.58) and led the league in coverage snaps per reception allowed (19.5).
Peterson is perhaps the most gifted cornerback in the league, and it is fair to say he has not always played his best ball. However, he comes in behind five other cornerbacks on this list — Richard Sherman, Chris Harris, Darrelle Revis, Casey Heyward and Brent Grimes.
Sherman is understandable. So is Revis. Harris, Heyward and Grimes, though?
Those are questionable, at best.
Peterson has been one of the two five corners pretty much without question since 2012.
He is coming off perhaps his worst year last season, losing six games to a PED suspension and then struggling until the final month of the season.
Peterson certainly should be on the list. Putting him 54th overall isn’t awful. Putting five cornerbacks ahead of him?
That doesn’t make sense.
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