Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson isn’t denying that Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is good. But Peterson believes Sherman wouldn’t be that good in another team’s defensive scheme.
“If you look at their scheme and you look at our scheme, he’s a Cover-3 corner, period,” Peterson told Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, as reported by CBSSports.com. “A lot of guys say he’s a shutdown corner, but if you look at film and guys who understand the game, go back and look at film and see how his defense is.
“I believe if you put him in our system, I don’t think he’d be able to last, honestly, because I’m asked to do much more than he is.”
So what does Peterson think about Sherman’s above-average statistics then?
“I don’t want to get into a debate as far as getting the stats that he has and things like that,” Peterson said. “Obviously his job is much easier than mine.”
Ouch.
As CBSSports.com pointed out, ProFootballFocus.com ranked Sherman as the NFL’s sixth-best corner and pegged Peterson 16th. Sherman also has more interceptions than any other cornerback over the last three seasons (20) and led the league with eight in 2013. Peterson isn’t impressed by that, though.
“That’s all fine and dandy, but he’s only covering space, he’s not really covering a guy,” Peterson said. “At the end of the day, he has great stats, he has great play-making ability — I’m not taking that away from him because he is a good corner. But as far as being a shutdown corner, man-to-man guy, in my eyes, I don’t believe he’s that.”
Sherman, of course, had his own input on the debate.
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Photo via Twitter/@ESPNNFL
