We haven’t heard from former Pittsburgh Steelers CB Patrick Peterson too much in a while. After spending the 2023 season in the Black and Gold, the Steelers let him loose, to his surprise, and he’s had little action since. On the All Things Covered podcast, he said he’s still training and waiting for a phone call. But he also had a question for his cousin and co-host, Bryant McFadden, who has been through this.
“What do you think it is about the corners and the safety market at this day and age?” Peterson asked. “We know it’s a passing league, right? Why do you see so many high-caliber guys who’ve played at a high level, defensive backs, still free agents?”
I’m sure Peterson is including himself in that group as one of the high-caliber defensive backs. While I believe Steelers fans exaggerated his struggles last season, the former perennial Pro Bowler clearly lacked his peak abilities.
However, he also rightly points out that the free agent list is full of recognizable names in the secondary. In addition to Peterson, you have Xavien Howard, Jamal Adams, J.C. Jackson, Justin Simmons, and numerous others. Eddie Jackson is still available, as are Stephon Gilmore, Quandre Diggs, and Adoree’ Jackson, and on it goes.
All these players are no longer in their prime—the youngest above is 29—and some probably no longer merit signing. Some of them can certainly still play, however, with other factors coming into play regarding their unemployment. Some will only play for a certain price. Others are coming off injury or a down season, while still others prefer to wait to sign in the first place. Patrick Peterson is not in any of those categories, however, I assume. I’m not sure if he is prepared to play on a Veteran Salary Benefit deal, but he is ready to contribute somewhere.
Notably, everybody I named except for Peterson averaged $10 million or more on their previous contracts. These are obviously not cheap players, or at least they are not used to playing for cheap. Peterson has been playing under contracts short of $10 million since 2021, going as low as $4 million in 2022.
The Steelers erred in signing him to a two-year, $14 million contract, of which he saw half. They felt confident that he could convert into a slot defender and safety and could justify the deal. He did end up playing both in the slot and at safety, arguably better than he did on the outside, but there is a reason that he is still telling McFadden that he is waiting for a phone call.
There are some bigger names at other positions than in the defensive backfield, though in most cases you can understand why. Emmanuel Ogbah, for example, Connor Williams, is recovering from injury, and so is David Bakhtiari. You could argue Hunter Renfrow and Michael Thomas at wide receiver or Ryan Tannehill at quarterback. But Patrick Peterson isn’t wrong when he points out that veteran cornerbacks and safeties have a harder time rebounding financially. Fortunately for him, he has earned over $110 million in his career, so he is doing fine.