Cornerback Patrick Peterson announced that he’s re-signing with the Vikings on Wednesday night’s edition of his podcast and he also discussed why he decided to stay put over taking an offer from another team.
Peterson said that he became close with safety Harrison Smith and other teammates during the 2021 season and felt it was “right just to be there and grind with those guys” again this season. He also saw the arrivals of head coach Kevin O’Connell, defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, and edge rusher Za’Darius Smith as reason to think that the Vikings will be able to take a step forward this season.
“That team is stacked, just like I talked about last year,” Peterson said, via the team’s website. “We just didn’t put it all together in certain situations, but we got even better this year in the offseason by adding a great offensive mind in Kevin, adding a pass rusher to help Danielle [Hunter] and with Ed coming from his defensive background. . . . These guys are definitely trying to put the pieces in the right place. Now it’s just all on us and the coaching staff and the players to go out and execute and put together the best game plan possible.”
The Vikings were 8-9 last season and it seems clear that Peterson thinks the changes the team has made since the end of the season will allow them to wind up on the right side of .500 this time around.