Here's a story that should make Arizona Cardinals fans thank their lucky stars.
If not for the lockout of 2011, All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson would've been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles instead of the Cardinals, according to former Eagles president Joe Banner.
Banner, a member of the Eagles' front office from 1995-2012, recently revealed that before Philadelphia traded quarterback Kevin Kolb to the Cardinals for cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2012 second-round pick in July 2011, after the lockout had ended, there was a different deal between the two clubs in place that would have allowed the Eagles to draft Peterson.
Banner says Peterson still would've gone No. 5 if the Eagles had been picking in that slot.
"The original trade was the fifth pick of the draft, which we were targeting Patrick Peterson for, and the second-round pick for next year," Banner said last week on ESPN's NFL Insiders. "Because there was a lockout, we weren't allowed to make trades leading into the draft, or else Patrick Peterson would've been a Philadelphia Eagle."
Interesting stuff. Peterson could've played for a team he trolled in December after the Cardinals' NFC West-clinching win over the Eagles.
The headliners in the trade that did come to fruition didn't end up paying off for either team. The Cardinals cut Kolb before the 2013 season and Rodgers-Cromartie was not retained by the Eagles that year. The Eagles turned the pick they acquired from the Cardinals into two picks in a trade with the Green Bay Packers. The two picks were spent on prospects that developed into situational players -- DE Vinny Curry, a pass rusher whose contract with the Eagles is due to expire, and CB Brandon Boykin, whom the Eagles traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 2015 season.
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