Corey Peters is the unsung hero of the Arizona Cardinals defense

The Arizona Cardinals defense ended the season in a lot of positive areas statistically.

While their overall scoring defense fell to the lowest in the Bruce Arians era, they did well in the yardage aspect.

It may be a small consolation prize, but it is something positive to take from an otherwise forgettable season.

One of the reasons for that great yardage ranking was because of the work of the much forgotten Corey Peters.

Peters is now the elder statesmen on the defensive line, sure Frostee Rucker is back, but he played less than Peters in '16 and with the young talent at defensive end, will likely play less in '17.

Peters is mostly overlooked on defense. He plays nose tackle, he doesn't register a lot of sacks or tackles, but he does his job.

The regression of the defense in points was mostly on the inability to stop the pass, then stop teams in goal line situations, but most of that falls on others, not Peters.

Peters was outstanding when he was on the field, as Pro Football Focus noted:

Only 9% of his run snaps were negatively graded, which means the other 91% of his snaps were either a tie or win for Peters.

Peters was doing his job in 2016. It is not a sexy job, but it is a job that has to be done, and Peters does it as well as anyone.