Cardinals aren’t trading Patrick Peterson, GM Steve Keim reiterates

Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim reportedly never wanted to trade Patrick Peterson after the cornerback requested a trade.

That news surfaced Monday, in the same report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that revealed Peterson was desperate to find a way out of Arizona. A day later, Peterson’s cousin and CBS analyst Bryant McFadden confirmed that the Pro Bowler was not pleased with the direction of the Cardinals after a 1-6 start under first-year coach Steve Wilks.

Then by Wednesday, Peterson’s tune shifted.

Meeting with Cardinals leadership, including owner Michael Bidwill, had Peterson re-committing to the team.

Arizona general manager Steve Keim, who joined Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station Friday, said he didn’t take the news personally.

“This is a business. At the end of the day, we know we spent a lot of time talking about this in the media,” Keim said. “As far as I’m concerned, guys, we’re on to San Francisco, to paraphrase Bill Belichick.

“Everybody handles adversity and frustration differently, but at the same time, everything that happens can be used as a positive in life. It can pull you closer together.”

The Cardinals GM didn’t discuss whether he considered any trade offers for Peterson, whose cousin told Doug & Wolf Tuesday that the Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints were the most interested in trading for him.

Did those teams or any others push an enticing trade offer across the table?

“I’ll refer to what Michael Bidwill said a ways back, which I think he came out with a statement (to NFL.com), which is, ‘We’re not trading Patrick Peterson,'” Keim said.

IS ANOTHER TRADE UPCOMING?

Tuesday marks the NFL trade deadline, and Keim said the Cardinals will continue taking phone calls.

He said another poor performance Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers won’t change his approach to the deadline.

“At 1-and-6, it’s pretty clear where we’re at right now. And that is to improve this roster any way we can, which can be difficult during the season,” Keim said.

Arizona will continue using Tuesdays to bring in free agents for workouts, something the team has been aggressive in trying to make on-the-fly improvements this season.

As for the potential for a trade, don’t count on it.

“There is a lot of dialog and conversation,” Keim said. “There are a lot of conversations yet very few times people want to pull the trigger because the compensation doesn’t match.”

EXCITED FOR BYRON

As the Cardinals prepared to replace offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, who was fired a week from Friday, Keim said he sat down with then-quarterbacks coach Byron Leftwich.

That hours-long discussion went well.

Arizona promoted Leftwich to offensive coordinator, it was announced upon McCoy’s firing.

“Moving forward, again, I think Byron has an understanding of what he wants to do, which is very important,” Keim said.

The early returns look promising to Keim, too.

“I thought practice was crisp. Really excited to see some of the things we do offensively, not so much schematically but how crisp we run the offense this weekend,” the GM added. “Have a lot of faith in Byron Leftwich. It feels like it was yesterday when I was in Huntington, West Virginia in the fall of 2002. (Former Cardinals tight end coach) Marty Galbraith was an offensive coordinator at Marshall (from 1998-99) and a friend of mine and I’ll never forget; I was sitting in the film room watching Byron on tape and they brought him in to meet me.

“You could tell right then and there that his leadership and his energy was infectious. He just had a swag to him.”

Follow @kzimmermanaz