CB Patrick Peterson rips Cardinals GM Steve Keim: ‘Lost all respect’
Jul 28, 2021, 12:13 PM
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson (21) celebrates after an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020, in Glendale, Ariz. The Cardinals won 33-26. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Minnesota Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson ripped Cardinals general manager Steve Keim for his drafting history, head-coaching hires and, most disrespectfully to the former Arizona player, how Keim handled Peterson’s free agency this past offseason.
Peterson made the comments over the course of a 17-minute segment of his All Things Covered podcast with co-host Bryant McFadden.
“This is why I’m so kinda upset: Going through the whole (free agency process) … we have our end-of-the-year talk,” Peterson explained. “‘Yeah, P, we going to do everything we can to get you back. Blah, blah, blah, blah.’ All bull(expletive).
“And obviously February rolls around, March rolls around, (Keim is) telling me, ‘We got to wait until the new salary cap number comes out,’ this, that and the other. Mind you, they signed J.J. Watt two weeks before free agency started.”
Peterson said that around March, before going on a family vacation to the Bahamas, he tried to connect with Keim to talk about his future with Arizona, where he wanted to stay.
That initiation was met by silence, the eight-time Pro Bowler said.
It wasn’t until Peterson had already gotten the message and moved on that the Cardinals general manager reached out, the cornerback added.
“I sign with my new team, Minnesota, guess who call and text me,” Peterson said. “You thought I picked it up?
“For him to do that, yo, I lost all respect for him, man.”
Peterson said he would have appreciated if Keim had been open about wanting to move in a new direction at some point between his exit interview and free agency.
That, the cornerback said multiple times, never happened.
While that was the biggest reason for Peterson’s need to get things off his chest in his latest podcast, he also let loose on Keim for other reasons.
Peterson said Keim at times criticizing his star players through the media rubbed him the wrong way. He also suggested the Cardinals have a history of not paying defensive players as well as offensive players, which is why Peterson said he wasn’t surprised outside linebacker Chandler Jones has reportedly requested a trade from Arizona.
The former Cardinals cornerback, who was the team’s first-round pick in 2011, said he believes Keim hired two head coaches who, in his opinion, do not have a strong voices in terms of roster-building.
“(Bruce Arians) had a hand in all of that stuff. … Especially there, I feel like (current coach Kliff Kingsbury) don’t have a say-so in guys he want to bring in,” Peterson said.
“Quite frankly, I think that’s probably why they picked the head coaches they picked, the last two head coaches (Kingsbury and Steve Wilks). And I feel like, B.A., I feel like to me, he was forced to retire. I feel like he was forced to retire.”
