Patrick Peterson's defensive secrets

— -- Patrick Peterson's voice rises as he stiff-arms my sternum with one hand and tugs violently at the tail of my shirt with the other. This is as animated as you'll ever see the 24-year-old Cardinals star. But what has Peterson so worked up isn't his new five-year, $70 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid cornerback in the game, or his ongoing Twitter war with Seattle's Richard Sherman over the title of NFL's best corner. Instead, Peterson is giving me a spirited training-camp tutorial, complete with hands-on demonstrations, on the art of thriving on the island as a shutdown corner.

The Mag: We hear so much about the pre-snap wizardry of Peyton Manning and other quarterbacks, but what people don't realize is that you guys on defense are doing the same thing to them, right?
Peterson: For us it's all a process of elimination. It starts with seeing formations and other things pre-snap that tell us there's only a certain number of routes they can run in this situation. After studying film all week, you put into your head certain formations that you recognize before the snap as your opponent's go-to formations. For some teams, that might be something like an H formation with a pepper-Y slot, meaning two tight ends on one side and a slot formation on the backside. When I see that, I already know that if they run a tight end in motion to create trips on one side, man, they love to run a strong curl route in that situation.

It's like blackjack -- you're reading the cards to better your odds.
Exactly. When I'm breaking down an offense, I look at all the little things. Like where's the ball at -- is it on the right hash or the left hash? If I'm on the left side and the ball is to my hash, nine times out of 10 the ball is coming to my side, because that's a much shorter throw for the quarterback. If my guy is in a normal split, two yards away from the yard-marker number, it's more than likely gonna be a quick slant or a back-shoulder fade. If the ball is on the opposite hash and the receiver is on the numbers, they're gonna run everything inside because that's too far a throw from the opposite hash to the sidelines. After the snap too, you read the stem -- the first few steps the receiver takes. Is he moving inside, leaning outside or using a speed release for a downfield route? Like a QB, you read it all, process it and react very, very fast. That's how you know what route they're running almost as fast as they do.

With the new emphasis on illegal contact and holding, what can you still get away with? Once the ball is snapped, it's almost like martial arts the way you manipulate the receiver with well-placed, and well-disguised, hands.
They are throwing so many rules at us that benefit offenses now. It's unbelievable. Still, if I'm in bump-and-run and they're going deep -- just a straight nine route -- what I like to do is aim, or stay with, the upfield shoulder while I get a little tug on the hip with my off hand. The ref can't see that because my body is blocking his view. Receivers like to twist their torso a lot, and when they do, especially if your hand is higher than the hip, it's a penalty. You're called for holding. So I want to keep my hand low on his hips where I can stay connected. Now he can't outjump me or outrun me, and I can manipulate him any way I want and they will never call it because I'm not interfering with the route. The only time I really want to keep my hands high is when a receiver at the line of scrimmage doesn't give a clean release, if he's just playing around and then he tries to cut across my face for an inside slant. The 49ers and the Seahawks love to do that. I jam the receiver hard at the pec; I want to strike as hard and be as disruptive as possible. I also mess around with guys a lot when the ball is in the air. I mess with hips; I hit guys in the thighs. If a receiver is running deep and he's about to go for the ball, I club him with one arm moving up and then swat with the other arm coming down.

I bet wide receivers hate that stuff.
It irritates them to death. To. Death. They aren't used to it. There are very few teams that still play bump-and-run. It's a lost art. Now everybody is in zone with help over the top, playing seven yards off, letting the linebackers get up under the hitches and comebacks. To me, that's giving the wide receivers too much leeway because none of them like getting touched -- none of them. The more you can get your hands on a receiver, the better off you'll be. If you get your hands on a receiver within the first three to four yards and square your body with his, nine times out of 10 the quarterback is going to immediately look to throw somewhere else. From the pocket, that kind of close shoulder-to-shoulder body position makes the QB think I've got the wide receiver covered. A quarterback has a four-second clock in his head. He's thinking, "I gotta get this ball out quickly; that guy looks covered, go somewhere else."

Then, as the play progresses, it becomes about the eyes, right? Is that what ?you're looking at?
If it's the top of the route, I'm looking at the receiver's head because that's gonna tell me when the ball is coming. If I'm playing off, in zero technique, with a lot of space between me and the receiver, now my eyes are low because as he comes off the line, he has space to do all kinds of things with his upper body. I don't want to get thrown off or fooled by reading that. A receiver's hips tell you where he's going. Now, when I'm pressing, that's a different story. I'm physically connected to the receiver's body. I watch him with my hands, you know? Then I can look back at the quarterback -- that's big because if I read him right, I can beat the receiver to the punch.

You're running full speed with a receiver and at the same time reading the quarterback's eyes? I can't walk and read my phone at the same time without running into a garbage can or something.
I'm actually reading his shoulders. A quarterback's shoulders tell you everything. If they're parallel to the sidelines, pointed to the middle of the field, most of the time it's gonna be a 10- to 15-yard pass in the middle. If they're tilted up, it's going downfield. ?If his shoulders are down but open, it's going to the sideline or the flat.

So brain, hands, eyes, then hips, right? I've seen scouts watch three seconds of film on a defensive back's hips and feet as he's transitioning out of a backpedal and the scouts will say: "This guy can't play. Next ..." Why is that?
If you play bump-and-run and you have hip problems and your hips are locked, then you can't get out of breaks easily, smoothly, quickly. When a wide receiver cuts, if you can't transition fast and fluidly and kick-step right back into that receiver, now you're two to three steps behind and you're in big trouble. If you don't have good, strong, open and fluid hips and feet in transition, you have to cross over or take an extra step to keep up, and that puts you behind. My college coach used to say if you're coming out of a break and you're behind the receiver and you hear the band start playing, you know what that means.

Touchdown. Because those breaks are how receivers create separation and space for the ball. Once the ball is in the air, though, the fun begins.
My background, growing up as an offensive guy in high school, when the ball is in the air I'm thinking one thing: It's mine. No matter where it is. It's mine. For me, it's all about getting your hands on the ball. And when that happens, then it becomes protect the ball. That's the top priority. After that: Scan the field, see how everything's set up and score. Because you know those offensive guys are not good tacklers at all. Yeah, we love getting the ball in our hands on defense. We want to be on that highlight reel too. I love it. That's the most pleasing part. That's the joy. It takes you back to the playground, back to just playing with your friends.