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Seattle Seahawks NFC West division rival, the Arizona Cardinals, are moving on from their franchise corner this offseason. After 10 years in Arizona, the Cardinals will reportedly not be looking to re-sign Patrick Peterson as the future Hall-of-Famer is set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
Per source, the Arizona Cardinals and former All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson are parting ways barring a significant change in stances.
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) February 8, 2021
Peterson, 30, has enjoyed eight Pro Bowl and three First-Team All-Pro campaigns since being selected No. 5 overall in the 2011 Draft.
Peterson enjoyed a 10-year career with the Cardinals that included 8 Pro-Bowl selections and 3 first-team All-Pro selections. However, the two years that he missed the Pro-Bowl were the two most recent seasons, 2019 and 2020.
Peterson did start all 16 of the Cardinals games last year and had 3 interceptions, 75 targets, and allowed only 50 catches. So, Peterson will still be a productive player wherever he goes, but it will probably not be at his 2011-2018 level.
This is also big news for Seattle, a team that will be looking for a corner in the offseason, and also a team that will be happy to see one of the many star defensive players potentially leave the division. I might be speaking too soon on this as Richard Sherman is “Highly unlikely to return” to The Bay and that now makes the 49ers' greatest need a corner.
But, as just mentioned, the Seahawks will be in the market for a lockdown cornerback whether it is with one of their earlier picks in the draft or through free agency. Of course, signing and re-signing aging defensive backs has not exactly been Pete Carroll’s thing, but by cutting Carlos Dunlap and Jarran Reed, which I expect Seattle to do, they free up $23 million in cap space that could be used to bring in a player of Peterson’s caliber.