3 Steelers breakout candidates, 1 player who will disappoint in 2023 season

Patrick Peterson will disappoint in his first year with the Steelers

One of the marquee free agents that the Steelers added this offseason was former first-round pick and three-time All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson, who had spent the last two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings after a 10-year run with the Arizona Cardinals.

Pittsburgh signed Peterson to a two-year contract, though with a potential out after this season, worth up to $14 million. And on the surface, that might seem like a steal considering that the 33-year-old cornerback enjoyed a bounce-back year with the Vikings in 2022, grading out as the 12th-best player at the position according to PFF (subscription required).

That all looks great right? And it should, but there should also be some trepidation about what Peterson is actually going to deliver in the 2023 season.

Perhaps the biggest concern is that, over the last four seasons, his great showing a year ago is an outlier. He posted an 82.5 coverage grade from PFF in the 2022 season, but had not graded out higher than 64.3 in any of the previous three years.

When you then factor in that Peterson is now 33 years old, it’s hard to imagine that he’s going to get any better at this point. Subsequently, there’s a risk that his great campaign in his final year with Minnesota is actually an outlier for the player he is at this point.

There’s a chance this is a bad read on the situation and that Peterson has figured out a way to make up for any diminished physical gifts due to his age while in coverage. There is also a chance that the Steelers won’t be too pleased with their big-name offseason investment.