Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson will play for Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell this season. That’s a first, and something Peterson has hoped for since before he was in the NFL.
Peterson and Donatell met in 2011, when Peterson was a highly regarded prospect out of LSU and Donatell was the 49ers’ defensive backs coach. Peterson ended up going to the Cardinals at No. 5 overall that year, before the 49ers could pick him at No. 7, but Peterson still remembers the good conversations he had with Donatell leading up to the draft.
“You could just tell he’s a guy that wants to get to know the person,” Peterson said, via the Pioneer Press. “He couldn’t care less about the football player. He wanted to get to know Patrick Peterson the person. Just a very genuine person, and it’s hard to not want to be around those kinds of people.”
When Donatell was hired this offseason as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, that made Peterson want to re-sign with the Vikings even more.
“I was like, ‘This would be a great opportunity to finally get to play for Coach Ed,’” Peterson said. “Now I’m here.”
It’s a pairing 11 years in the making.