The Cardinals haven’t tried to hide Patrick Peterson’s involvement with the team’s offense.
Given the rate at which that involvement is growing, that’s probably a good idea. Darren Urban of the Cardinals website reports that the team’s star cornerback said Thursday that the package that he’s part of has grown to 60 offensive plays.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this many,” Peterson said. “I am definitely getting my workload. The thing that intrigues me about the plays I am in there, I don’t go in just to get the ball. I can be in there as a decoy. I can be there to open up the field for other guys, to take the top off the coverage. That’s what I love about it most.”
Against the Cowboys last weekend, Peterson served as a decoy and he also gained six yards on a pass behind the line from Carson Palmer that went into the books as a running play. That was just a taste of what appears to be in the works for Peterson, who used the example of returning a punt 99 yards for a touchdown as a rookie after three plays covering receivers on go routes to explain why he wasn’t concerned about the offensive work taking away from what he can do on defense.
That’s a real concern for Bruce Arians and company to weigh when deciding how to deploy Peterson, but it appears that the prospect of getting the ball into the hands of perhaps their most talented player after Larry Fitzgerald is appealing enough to risk it.