Patrick Peterson was considered on many draft boards to be the top player available in the 2011 NFL Draft, going fifth overall to the Arizona Cardinals. But unlike many of the other players at the top of the draft board, Peterson has kept a pretty low profile since then. He displays an un-apologetic humility about his transition to the NFL.
“I’ve never played in this league,” he told FOXSportsArizona.com.
“I did a lot of great things at the college level, but this is a grown-man’s world. This isn’t college. I’m a young man trying to become a grown man some day.”
Asked to evaluate his play in the Cardinals’ first preseason game on AZCardinals.com, Peterson said, “It was my first NFL game, there’s definitely some things I need to work on. But that will come in due time. Being a rookie, I definitely have to learn on the fly.
Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt plans to bring him along slowly, saying, “We’ll assess Patrick based on what he brings to the table and how far he’s come in playing the defense and doing what he’s supposed to do in the scheme of it.”
“It really comes down to how much he’s able to handle and process as far as what that impact is going to be.”
Peterson says that he’s not focused on winning a starting job by the beginning of the season, “I just want to keep getting better each and every day. We have a lot of good corners out here. It’s a competition, it’s a battle. Whenever my number is called, I’ll definitely not look back and go out there and make plays for this defense.”
Peterson has a chance to win a starting cornerback position, but it is not a foregone conclusion in spite of his high draft position. How well he plays on Friday against the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers passing attack will go a long way to answering that question.
Whether or not he starts at corner, he is expected to make a contribution in the return game, where he also excelled at LSU.
“I love the kid, honestly,” said Adrian Wilson, Cardinals safety and Peterson’s roommate in training camp. “His confidence level makes me confident. He knows the playbook. He knows the things we want him to do.”
“You can tell he’s very well-rounded and he wants to be great.”
When Peterson does make his presence felt on the field, he plans to be a little more restrained than he was in college, “At LSU, I was a huge trash-talker, but now that I’m a young guy, I’m going to have to ease my way in.”
