There are some teams with difficult choices to make when it comes to exercising the fifth-year option on their 2011 first-round pick, but the Cardinals aren’t one of them.
Cornerback Patrick Peterson has been everything the Cardinals hoped he’d be as both a defender and a returner when they took him with the fifth overall selection, so it is no surprise that Albert Breer of NFL Network reports that they have gone ahead and exercised the option well ahead of the May 3 deadline. Peterson stands to make a bit more than $10 million in 2015 as a result of Arizona’s decision.
There’s nothing stopping the two sides from reaching agreement on a longer deal that makes the option a moot point, but the Cardinals weren’t going to risk losing Peterson for even a minute. In February, Peterson said that he had not ruled out a holdout as a strategy for getting such a deal while also saying that it wasn’t one that he had talked about with his agent at that point.
Discussions about all options are likely to happen now that the Cardinals have made their move. One way or another, though, it’s a good bet that Peterson will remain in Arizona beyond the next two seasons.