Entering training camp this year for the Arizona Cardinals, it was believed that cornerback Patrick Peterson would probably be done with punt returns. Apparently that is not the case.
During Saturday's practice, Peterson was back fielding punts, along with Ted Ginn, Reggie Dunn, Jerraud Powers and Antonio Cromartie.
Head coach Bruce Arians was asked about the return game in general after Saturday's morning walkthrough.
"(The amount of speed we have in the return game) should help tremendously," he said. "Teddy has been a big time returner for a long time and John (Brown) is a very capable guy, as well as Walt Powell is.
"I think our return game should benefit with speed alone, but also giving us the ability to do a few different returns and maybe have multiple guys out there at the same time. We used Tyrann (Mathieu) and Patrick (Peterson) together last year. And we'll still have that package when Ty comes back and how much we use Patrick is still to be seen."
Now, Arians was referring to both kick returns and punt returns. Neither Brown nor Powell worked on punt returns. One can assume that they will practice at kick returns.
The Cardinals do have what appears to be many good options.
What is different this year is that Peterson is definitely not going to be "the guy" on punt returns. Last year, the comments were "of course he will do returns" and this year it is "we will see."
Most expect Ginn to be the guy. He averaged over 12 yards a return in 2013. Peterson averaged six and a little over eight yards a return the past two seasons.