Marcus Peters returns to form at perfect time for Kansas City Chiefs

Marcus Peters might still have his doubters, but there’s no pleasing everyone. The reality is that he returned to form at the perfect time for the Chiefs.

One week ago, Marcus Peters was missing.

It’s not that the Kansas City Chiefs cornerback had, once again, walked back to the locker room at the wrong time. That’s also not a metaphor, as if he was doing something wrong on the field. Rather, his own head coach, Andy Reid, decided the team and player would be better off if given a break from each other.

Peters was suspended for a week after throwing an official’s flag in a loss to the New York Jets and, allegedly, for fighting with an unnamed assistant coach after the game. The details aren’t clear, since the Chiefs have kept things under wraps—as they should. It was just clear the team had had enough—just like the fan base who kept complaining about Peters for various reasons in 2017.

The reasons were major and minor and not without merit. The national anthem controversy has hit every team and if you’re the type of NFL fan who would get offended by some of the players’ choices during that pre-game time, then Peters was always going to be the lightning rod for your vitriol.

Even more, Peters had shown an inconsistency this year that hadn’t shown up over the previous two seasons, and this touches both personal and professional matters. Personally, Peters seemed like more of the hothead he was rumored to be coming out of college, as emotions went unchecked or improperly channeled. On the field, the unwillingness to tackle at times was downright frustrating for fans watching the game (or tape).

So when Peters threw the flag into the stands against the Jets, walked off the field and returned to the sideline only not in uniform (no socks) so he couldn’t play anymore, some of Chiefs Kingdom said, “Enough is enough.” Even if you disagreed with the idea (and you should have), everyone should at least be able to see why Peters is frustrating to the fan base.

So Reid did what he had to do. After all, if he’s become that upsetting to fans, what about those closest to him. The player-friendly coach finally dropped the hammer and told Peters to take a mid-season break. Rumors during that week off said that Peters was sorry for the way the season had played out, that this whole affair had been blown out of proportion and that Peters felt bad about it. Some fans were dismissive, while others were hopeful.

Enter Sunday. Peters intercepted Rivers once and then again. He limited one receiver after another. He played the sort of game fans have come to expect from such a ballhawk. Check out the responses on Twitter:

Here’s the thing about Peters. Saturday night’s win over the Chargers featured the sort of performance that Peters has always put up, and even this season, Peters hasn’t been too far off—at least not to the degree that the haters make it seem.

The bottom line when it comes to Marcus Peters is this: he’s a historically good cornerback. Historically good. You don’t let historically good players go anywhere. You don’t trade them for hopefully historically good players in the next draft, and you don’t let them leave in free agency unless you think they’re done being historically good.

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Even if Peters had no turnovers tonight, there would still be absolutely no reason for the Chiefs to do anything with Marcus Peters except depend upon him to defend passes. He’s emotional, yes. He’s also a future Hall of Famer if his career continues at this trajectory. If you want to root for a team that doesn’t have Marcus Peters on it, there are 31 others in the NFL with the boy scouts you’re looking for.