Marcus Peters's Lie Paid Off

There was no hiding the fact that when the Ravens traded for Marcus Peters on Tuesday, they were only going to get a short window to try and catch him up to speed. Peters didn’t meet with his position coaches until Wednesday night and practiced with the team for the first time on Thursday.

Still, with half the team’s secondary out injured, Peters’s services would be desperately needed against a Seahawks offense featuring a quarterback who’s putting together an MVP-caliber season. Defensive coordinator Don Martindale recognized this, so he left a bit of an opening two-time Pro Bowl corner to make his way onto the team on Sunday.

“It’s football. He’s ready to go,” Martindale said. “There’s may be a couple of different things terminology-wise that he’s got to get used to. He said he’d let me know by Friday if he’s ready to go the whole (game) and I said, ‘Just lie to me and tell me you are and we’ll just go play you.’”

Playing Peters with very little preparation, as talented as he is, is a serious risk, especially given who the opponent was going to be—hell, his Rams tenure wasn’t exactly a bright spot. Luckily for both Martindale and Peters, neither had to eat any crow over the decision given what the corner was able to do in the first half. Thank God he either lied or was cocky enough to feel ready regardless.

If this is how he looks with almost no practice time, imagine how he’ll look once he gets a full week’s worth of rest in.