Arizona Cardinals Antonio Cromartie: ‘I was very mediocre last year’

The Arizona Cardinals have one of the most athletic cornerback duos in the NFL in Patrick Peterson and Antonio Cromartie, and they could have one of the best duos in the league if Cromartie can regain his 2012 form. Peterson is already a sure-fire top-five CB, and there are plenty of people, including CBS’s esteemed Pete Prisco, who think that he’s currently the best player at the position in the league, ahead of Richard Sherman and Darrelle Revis. While Cromartie isn’t nearly as good, he played like a top ten corner in the 2012 season, and he has the tools to repeat that performance.

There’s no doubt that Cromartie had a down year last season, and he was a huge disappointment in his first full season replacing Revis as the full-time No. 1 CB after aptly replacing him when Revis went down with an injury in 2012. Appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Cromartie was honest and stated that he didn’t play well last year, “I think I was very mediocre last year with the Jets but was playing hurt a good portion of the year.”

It’s an honest take from the playmaking CB, and his statement about the injury is perfectly correct; a nagging hip injury severely hampered his ability to stick with top receivers. He improved some as the year went on, but he was clearly not himself throughout the season. Here’s to hoping for a bounce-back season from Cro, who claims that he ran a 4.36 forty this offseason.