Marcus Peters, Odell Beckham, Jr. and the handling of emotional players
By Matt Conner
The trade of Marcus Peters is still confusing but a recent post by former Giants coach Ben McAdoo might also help explain the Chiefs challenges with Peters.
In the wake of the Marcus Peters trade, even months later, some of us in Chiefs Kingdom are still left curious and confused as to why the team made the move that it did. While some fans are fine with the move due to their negative opinion of Peters in the first place, others, including myself, have lots of questions about several aspects of the deal.
Given the lack of impact players in the secondary, trading away the leader in overall takeaways over the last three seasons seems like a horrible move to make for even a king’s ransom. Some of the reasons given have been vague, and even if they’re accepted, they’re hard to stomach since it still feels disproportional to trade Peters at all.
Then again, one other things that needs explaining is the lack of offers for Peters. A future second round pick and a fourth in the present are a meager offering for one of the best corners in the game. That the Chiefs took that offer (and that it was the only one) says volumes about what we don’t know. In short, no one is coming out and saying publicly what everyone seems to know behind the scenes.
Of course, we could all infer plenty from the lack of offers. Many Chiefs fans were quick to label him as a troubled player, a divisive personality, a selfish teammate. The problem with that storyline is that you have to call all of his teammates a liar to run with that narrative. Numerous teammates have gone on record supporting Peters as an exemplary teammate and community member. Even then it’s not hard to find stories of Peters using his platform to provide help and support for those who need it. Just an example:
- Here’s a story on Peters distributing turkeys for poorer families at Thanksgiving
- Here’s a story on Peters leading a coat drive for needy children
- Here’s a story of Peters raising awareness to support a Muslim couple banned from re-entering the U.S.
- Here’s a story on Peters helping at-risk kids in his hometown of Oakland from earlier this summer.
If you’re willing to read all of the evidence and accept it, then you’re likely left with a conflicting narrative. Peters is an elite talent who is also very emotional. He’s a respected teammate who got into a fight with a coach. He’s a player you want on the field for every snap except when you suspend him a full game. Somehow Peters is all of this.
For those still wanting answers, I think you can see some of them in a recent admission from former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo. In a recent column from Peter King, McAdoo was willing to contribute some things he’d learned from his short-lived stint as the leader of a team in the brightest lights of all in the Big Apple. Considering his experience in working with a mercurial talent like Marcus Peters in Odell Beckham, Jr., McAdoo posted some interesting insight. He wrote:
"I learned I need to handle players, and work with players, better. Take Odell Beckham Jr. I needed to be better for him personally, as a coordinator and head coach. I was too busy trying to scheme ways to get him the ball, especially early in my time in New York, that I didn’t step back and see the big picture the way I should have. Odell’s so passionate, and cares so much, and that emotion hurts him at times on game day. I should have seen my job with Odell was more than simply X’s and O’s; it was also helping Odell the person. He is not only a generational talent, but also bright and well-read, and I let him down early in his career. I will not make that mistake again."
While McAdoo has no connection to or experience with Peters at all, this paragraph created an a-ha moment for me. We might be inappropriately projecting onto Peters here, but is it possible that OBJ is the same sort of player: wildly talented, highly emotional. We knew this already to some degree, but McAdoo’s description and admission presents a different side.
Could it be that the Chiefs didn’t want to burden their coaching staff with the necessarily work of coaching Peters? Is it possible that the Chiefs decided to move forward with the X’s and O’s alone and to get what they could for Peters?
That would certainly make a lot of sense given that there are 90 players on the current roster and 53 on the active roster during the season. If a coaching staff is already stretched thin as it is, perhaps Peters simply proved to need too much from the Chiefs leadership
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If the Rams have the bandwidth to reach Peters (if indeed that’s what happened), they will enjoy a bountiful return. However it might take a savvy coaching staff to see the bigger picture and reach Peters where he’s at.