Peterson’s return boosts Cards ‘D’
Jets’ Mosley says he’s playing Monday night
TEMPE, Ariz. — Cornerback Patrick Peterson’s return to the Arizona Cardinals practice facility included a gift for teammate Larry Fitzgerald, whose birthday he had missed while serving a six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers.
It was a framed poster of the world’s top 100 golf courses. Someday, Peterson hopes to play a few of them with the star receiver.
But first, there’s work to do.
“It should be a great 10-game season for me,” Peterson said on Wednesday. “I’m planning on this being the best 10 games I’ve played in my career.”
Peterson, a three-time All-Pro, returns just as a young Cardinals team has started to build some confidence. Arizona (2-3-1) has won two straight games and will try to get back to .500 when it faces the New York Giants in a road game on Sunday.
Peterson said he spent a big chunk of his suspension training at 7,000 feet of altitude in the mountains in Flagstaff, about two hours north of Phoenix. He would simulate games each week, placing cones around the field and mirroring different routes, like he would defend on the field.
His only real concern is tackling, which is hard to simulate. But from a conditioning perspective, Peterson said Wednesday’s first full workout went well.
“It was a piece of cake,” Peterson said. “It felt like a walkthrough for me. I don’t know if I was so geeked, the anxiety, or what it was, but it was like I didn’t even practice today. I felt really well. I had a great bounce in my step today and just ready to get out there and face some live action.”
JETS: C.J. Mosley broke his own news with an announcement the New York Jets and their fans have been waiting to hear for weeks.
“I’m playing Monday night,” the star linebacker declared Thursday before repeating himself when a reporter asked what he said.
“Unless I get hurt or something,” Mosley said, “I’m playing.”
The Jets will have Mosley against the undefeated New England Patriots, a week after they got quarterback Sam Darnold back after he missed three games with mononucleosis.
Mosley has been sidelined since injuring his groin during the third quarter of the Jets’ season-opening loss to Buffalo. He participated in individual drills Thursday for the first time in his recovery process.
GIANTS: Dynamic running back Saquon Barkley is being coy about his chances of playing for the New York Giants on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
Barkley was a full go in practice on Thursday for the second straight day, and most expect the second-year running back to play on Sunday for the first time since hurting his right ankle on Sept. 22 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I’m just going to continue to take it day by day and trust my teammates, trust the process, trust the trainers, and like I said, continue to take it day by day,” Barkley said after the workout.
Barkley was asked about five different ways if he was going to play and sidestepped each question. It seems the only people who can say whether he is playing are coach Pat Shurmur and the team’s doctors.
RAIDERS: Oakland defensive coordinator Paul Guenther lashed out at the NFL for the lengthy suspension the league handed to Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict for a helmet-to-helmet hit, one of a series of violations for which he has been punished.
Burfict was suspended for the final 12 games of the regular season and the playoffs for the hit to the head of Indianapolis tight end Jack Doyle on Sept. 29. It was longest suspension ever handed down by the league for an on-field infraction.
Burfict appealed the penalty hoping to get it reduced but that was denied last week.
“I think it was a witch hunt from the beginning quite honestly,” Guenther said Thursday. “Somebody at the league didn’t want him playing football and they got what they wanted.”