Reviving Patrick Peterson's Career?

In 2012, Terence Newman was cut by the Dallas Cowboys. By all accounts, it looked like the end of the road for the former Pro Bowl cornerback, who was turning 34 and seemed to have lost much of the freak athleticism that once led him to be the 5th overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft. Newman was coming off a year in which he posted the ninth-worst PFF grade among starting cornerbacks and fifth-worst in yards allowed per coverage snap. But rather than retire, Newman signed a one-year contract for close to veteran minimum to rejoin Mike Zimmer on the Cincinnati Bengals, saying he had “the utmost confidence in Zim that he can get me back to playing where I was.”

That confidence paid off. The next year under Zimmer, Newman went from posting one of the worst PFF grades in 2011 to one of the better grades in 2012. Newman went on to play six more years in the NFL, almost all of them with Zimmer, consistently grading out as one of the NFL’s better cornerbacks.

So with the Vikings signing Patrick Peterson last week to a 1-year, $8 million contract (with an additional $2 million in incentives), it’s déjà vu all over again: Again Zimmer is bringing in an older free-agent cornerback, again it’s a former 5th overall pick who seems to have lost a step, and again Zimmer is confident he can get the cornerback to bounce back after a down year.

But why is Zimmer confident he can turn things around for Peterson? Because he knows that the Cardinals were asking too much of him, having Peterson shadow opposing WR1s in and out of the slot without safety help as though he’s Darrelle Revis in his prime. At 30 years old, Peterson is no Revis. But with a few tweaks outlined below, he could easily be an even better version of Newman.

So Zimmer can definitely return Patrick Peterson to his former dominant self. He simply needs to ask Peterson to do the things he’s great at and avoid the things he’s bad at.

The Cardinals played Peterson in the slot on 12% of coverage snaps last year to disastrous effect. His lack of quickness was exposed on the inside and he was unable to use his physicality to his advantage. If you simply take away the 74 coverage snaps Peterson played inside last year, Peterson’s coverage numbers skyrocket: three interceptions, only one touchdown allowed all year and a passer rating allowed of just 80.6, which would have ranked 17th-best among all cornerbacks. Peterson can still shadow receivers — he clearly benefits from the film study and man-on-man matchups — but don’t force him into deep water inside. Zimmer should keep Peterson on the outside, where his physicality shines brightest.

But that only solves part of Peterson’s problems last year. To keep Peterson from surrendering deep catches downfield, or to keep him from committing penalties to prevent touchdowns, give him more help. Zimmer won’t need to exclusively play two deep safeties, but don’t play the least Cover 2 in the NFL like the Cardinals did last year. With more safety help over the top, Peterson will be able to confidently press receivers at the line of scrimmage without needing to panic if a receiver starts to beat him downfield occasionally.

Zimmer should also continue to play more zone-matching concepts rather than pure man-to-man coverage, because if Peterson is forced to cover Stefon Diggs or Terry McLaurin on deep crossing patterns across the field again, those are footraces the veteran corner won’t be able to win. Having Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, and Jeff Gladney as teammates should enable Peterson to frequently pass off in-breaking routes, which will prevent Peterson’s lack of quickness from getting exposed in the middle of the field. Communication and synergy must continue to be emphasized, the same as they were for Terence Newman and the Bengals in 2012.

All that will allow Peterson to do what he does best and avoid the Cardinals’ pitfalls last year. Peterson can still dominate top receivers as a physically intimidating press corner with elite ball skills and impressive play recognition. He just needs a little more help from the scheme and the players around him to help mask some of his physical limitations.

And not coincidentally, that all meshes with Zimmer’s schematic tendencies and the Vikings’ current roster. Zimmer has based out of two-high safety looks for the past few years now. While I don’t believe he wants to abandon run defense and base out of Cover 2 next year the way he was forced to last year to help out the depleted cornerback corps, there’s good reason to think he will continue to run more split-safety coverage, as we wrote about recently. More split-safety looks would also allow Peterson to press more often, knowing that he has a safety valve upfield should anyone get past him.

And the necessity for defensive cohesion also meshes with Zimmer’s zone matching coverage philosophy that emphasizes active communication and passing off routes while still playing tight to receivers to get the best of both zone coverage and man coverage. It’s the same reason Newman was able to succeed with Zimmer in Cincinnati after struggling his last year in Dallas — a well-coached defense that knows what each player is doing can help prop each defender up.

So How Good Can Patrick Peterson Be Next Year?

Peterson may have declined physically in the 10 years he has been in the league, but he can make up for it with teach-tape technique, suffocating physicality, and veteran savvy. His is not necessarily the position I would have prioritized given the other needs on the roster, nor is his one-year deal necessarily the best use of resources in the long term. But he can still be a good player, maybe even a great player, at one of the most important positions in football.

He is no longer the rare physical specimen that you can leave on an island and set and forget. He’s no prime Darrelle Revis. But with his press technique and intelligence, he can still play like a veteran Richard Sherman. I wouldn’t expect 31-year-old Patrick Peterson to have the same kind of season that 31-year-old Deion Sanders had with Zimmer in 1998. But I think Peterson can still be one of the better cornerbacks in the league for a long time — much like Terence Newman.