Vikings Territory: Patrick Peterson Joined The Vikings For One Main Reason

Press release from Vikings Territory:

Dustin Baker Dustin Baker

2021-08-23

Former Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson embarked on a second act to his career, departing the desert after 10 seasons, eight Pro Bowls, and three First-Team All-Pro selections.

Peterson chose the Vikings as his new home for one primary reason: Mike Zimmer.

The 2020 season ended and free agency began. Lo and behold, four Vikings players – count them – Stephen Weatherly, Mackensie Alexander, Sheldon Richardson, and Everson Griffen all returned to the Vikings after stops elsewhere.

On Monday, Peter King of NBC Sports wrote about the Vikings in his weekly column and described how the Peterson-Vikings marriage came to be. It was a matter of Peterson singularly finding Zimmer. Whoodathunkit?

Spielman didn’t have much money under the declining cap, and he never even called agent Joel Segal about Peterson, coming off a poor age-30 season in Arizona. The GM thought the price would be too high. Spielman was changing planes in the Atlanta airport on his way to scout a Pro Day in March when his phone buzzed. It was Segal. “He said Patrick wanted to play for us, and it wouldn’t cost as much as we thought,” Spielman told me. “I put Joel in touch with [Vikes cap man] Rob Brzezinski, and we had a deal done in an hour, maybe hour-and-a-half. It’s one of the fastest free-agent deals we’ve ever done. Joel just told us, ‘Zim, Zim, Zim. Pat wants to play for Mike Zimmer.’ 

Now, the team actually has to go out and reach those playoffs and beyond. General Manager Rick Spielman added defensive players this offseason like items in an Amazon cart, notably acquiring Peterson, Dalvin Tomlinson, Sheldon Richardson, Bashaud Breeland, and the aforementioned Griffen. Too, the return of Danielle Hunter, Michael Pierce, and Anthony Barr – players that missed nearly all of 2020 – establishes the team’s defensive roster as one more akin to the Zimmer experience. Before 2020, Minnesota never fell outside of the Top 11 in points allowed during the Zimmer reign. In the pandemic season, the Vikings ranked 29th.

This press release was produced by Vikings Territory .The views expressed here are the author’s own.