Patrick Peterson says Richard Sherman is not a shutdown cornerback

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Ruchard Sherman recently landed a big paycheck. He is considered by many, perhaps even most, around football to be the best cornerback in the game. Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson disagrees. In fact, when he was a guest on Arizona Sports 98.7's show with Dan Bickley and Vince Marotta, he said publicly that Sherman was should not even be considered a shutdown corner. 

He believes that the defensive scheme Sherman plays in Seattle detracts from the concept of a "shutdown" guy. Rather a than calling him a "shutdown corner," Peterson said "he's a Cover-3 corner, period."

Sherman does play on only one side of the field. Peterson, in contrast, is almost always lined up against the opposing team's top receiver, whether that is on the left, right or inside. 

"I believe if you put him in our system, I don't think he'd be able to last, honestly, because I'm asked to do much more than he is," Peterson explained. 

That is probably a bit of an exaggeration. Sherman is respected by football players, coaches and analysts. Peterson is asked to do more, but that doesn't take away from Sherman. 

Sherman has more interceptions and less targets than Peterson, but the Cardinals star disputes the numbers as an argument alone. 

"That's all fine and dandy, but he's only covering space, he's not really covering a guy," he said. "At the end of the day he has great stats, he has great playmaking ability -- I'm not taking that away from him because he is a good corner. But as far as being a shutdown corner, man-to-man guy, in my eyes, I don't believe he's that."

Peterson is due a big contract extension -- this offseason or the next -- so he has been a bit more vocal about his value. 

Truthfully, this isn't a good play by Peterson. He is good, but he still has enough struggles to make people wonder if he is elite yet. Sherman might not be asked to do more, but the results are there. He has the numbers and he has the big performances in big moments. Peterson still needs to show that. 

Would Sherman be able to handle the same role as Peterson? We will probably never know. 

As fun as it is to hear a player come out publicly and say things like this, it probably wasn't a good idea. You know that Sherman will respond. He is an emotional guy. And, on Peterson's side, it puts unnecessary pressure on him to perform at an even higher level this year. especially with his duties on offense and special teams diminishing. 

Cardinals fans, should he have even opened his mouth?