Patrick Peterson is fed up with the Arizona Cardinals. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, he “desperately” wants out, and has asked to be traded before the Oct. 30 trade deadline.
Patrick Peterson says he’s staying in Arizona, but could the Cardinals still make a trade?
The Cardinals say a trade isn’t happening, but the problem isn’t going to fix itself.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
It’s not exactly shocking; rumors of a Peterson trade have swirled for a while, because it makes sense. The cornerback has made the Pro Bowl in each of the first seven seasons of his career and is still one of the best in the league at his position, but he’s on a team that’s 1-6 and far from competitive.
Amidst the speculation that he wants out, Peterson released a statement Wednesday that he’s “incredibly frustrated” by the team’s record, but that he’s committed to turning things around with the Cardinals:
Opposing quarterbacks have a 39.9 passer rating this season when throwing Peterson’s direction, which is second in the NFL behind only Richard Sherman, who isn’t getting tested at all. But is it worth it for the Cardinals to eat nearly $15 million in cap space for Peterson when they’re going to be bad this year, regardless?
The Cardinals say it is.
“I’ve seen the speculation. But it’s not happening,” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport last week. Not happening.”
Cardinals coach Steve Wilks echoed that sentiment Monday shortly after Schefter’s report:
Does that mean it’s actually not happening? Probably. Peterson’s statement came after a meeting with Bidwill where he was given “assurances” about winning.
But the Cardinals are still a 1-5 team and there’s still probably going to be phone calls inquiring what it would cost to pull him out of Arizona.
There’s one possible landing spot that stands out
The most talked about team that could be in the market has been the New Orleans Saints. Even Peterson’s cousin, former Steelers and Cardinals cornerback Bryant McFadden, says it’s where Peterson would like to wind up.
That seemed perfect because Rapoport reported that the Saints were ready to trade for some cornerback help. But then they did by acquiring Eli Apple from the Giants for a fourth-round pick in 2019 and seventh-round pick in 2020.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the Saints are done looking for cornerback help. But there are a couple problems:
- The Saints have less than $2 million in salary cap space for the 2018 season and would need to do some serious shuffling to fit Peterson in.
- The Saints traded a 2019 first-round pick to move up for Marcus Davenport, traded a 2019 third-round pick for Teddy Bridgewater, and now traded a 2019 fourth-round pick for Apple. That leaves very little draft capital to make a deal happen.
While the Saints would probably love to snag Peterson, actually getting the deal done could be tough. Luckily, McFadden says there’s other teams that could hop into the mix too:
The Eagles could use a replacement for Jalen Mills, and the Patriots are always in the market for more talent. It’s not hard to think of other teams that could use another cornerback. The Buccaneers need to do something about their Swiss cheese secondary, and even other NFL players are campaigning for a deal to get done.
The question is just whether or not the Cardinals will back down from their adamant denials of a trade and listen to offers.
How bad could things get if Peterson doesn’t get traded?
Peterson is under contract through the 2020 season and his average annual salary of just over $14 million makes him the fourth highest paid cornerback in the NFL. So unlike the trade of Khalil Mack or the ongoing holdout of Le’Veon Bell, this isn’t about getting a new contract.
This appears to be about an elite player who’s sick of being on a team that’s terrible and wants to win. It probably doesn’t help that the new Cardinals coaching staff has been hilariously bad in 2018, and the defense spends all of its time in nickel sets which has made it exceptionally easy to run against Arizona.
So if the Cardinals don’t trade Peterson before the deadline this year, it’s not going to easy to magically make their star player happy. Unless Arizona suddenly starts rattling off wins, there’s no reason to think Peterson won’t be just as disgruntled in the 2019 offseason and beyond.
Eventually that’ll wear on a team. If the Cardinals don’t think they can get Peterson to a point where he’s content with staying in Arizona, trading the cornerback may end up being inevitable.
If that’s the case, it’d be better to trade Peterson sooner rather than later. His value will only depreciate as he gets older and his contract gets closer to ending.
How much is Peterson worth?
Big contracts are typically difficult to ship away, but Peterson’s is far from back-breaking. Plenty of teams can afford the $11,884,588 cap hit he has for the 2019 season and the $13,184,588 hit in 2020.
Especially if Peterson continues to play like an elite corner, as he has his entire career.
But if the Cardinals say they don’t want to trade Peterson, that probably means it’ll take a good offer to pry him away. At age 28, he doesn’t have quite the same long-term value that a younger building block would. But if Amari Cooper is worth a first-round pick, Peterson’s definitely not going to come much cheaper than that.
Considering Arizona’s stubborn refusal in public that Peterson will get traded and his statement that sounds resigned to the fact that no deal is happening, the likely scenario is that he’s still on the Cardinals’ roster when November begins. But this probably won’t be the last time you hear about Peterson’s discontent with Arizona.
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