Patrick Peterson Signs with Vikings
Josh Frey
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After a quiet 24 hours of Minnesota Vikings free agency, the team has made another massive splash. The Vikings have agreed to terms with CB Patrick Peterson on a one-year/$10 million deal. After playing his entire 10-year career in Arizona, it looks as if the veteran cornerback is taking his talents to Minnesota.
This move is big for a team that had an extremely young secondary in 2020. This showed at times with miscommunications and blown coverages at times throughout the season. Peterson’s presence should help shore up this secondary, and it will be a huge boost to the development of both Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler, who were both rookies last year and showed improvement as the season went on. A top three CB rotation of Dantzler/Peterson/Gladney should be very effective in 2021.
In his 10 years with the Cardinals, Peterson recorded 499 tackles, 91 pass defenses, and 28 INTs. After a calf injury held him out of six games in 2019, 2020 was a nice bounce back year for the veteran. He started all 16 games (as he had from 2011-18 before the injury), and he eight pass defenses and three INTs.
Not only will his play help the Vikings get their defense back on track, but it seems he is already a favorite in the locker room. Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson took to Twitter as the news broke to express his pleasure in the signing.