Marcus Peters was an immediate contributor for the Kansas City Chiefs last year and played a ton of snaps. He will be expected to do the same this season as he tries to follow up on his rookie of the year campaign.
Can Peters avoid the sophomore slump?
It’s a very real thing in the NFL. Teams have now had a full offseason to study Peters’ tape well. During the season you don’t have as you do in the offseason to dive in and really study a player well. Offensive coordinators will have a lot more information on Peters now than they did at this time last year.
Peters probably won’t have eight picks again. There is some flukiness to interceptions because you rely on someone else (the quarterback) to make a mistake. Teams are going to be weary of Peters this year.
Peters will also lose the benefit of playing across from the $10 million per year man, Sean Smith, who went to Oakland. Phillip Gaines likely replaces Smith. Gaines does not have the reputation that Sean Smith has so teams may just choose to pick on Gaines rather than Peters. In some ways, you could say Gaines will have a bigger role than Peters ... he’ll probably see more action.
I’m as curious as anyone to see how Peters does. For as impressive as his rookie season was, it would be even more impressive if he followed it up and did it again.