Peterson excited about fresh start with Falcons

Mike Peterson doesn’t sound like a guy that was demoted from the starting lineup and eventually exiled from his home of six years. He sounds happier than he’s been in a long time.

After a rocky exit from the Jacksonville Jaguars, Peterson is ready for a fresh start in Atlanta with the Falcons.

“Atlanta as a city is definitely different than Jacksonville, but I’m loving it,” he said. “It’s a first-class organization, though. From the owner on down, it’s first class. They take care of their players.”

Peterson and Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio were involved in a highly-publicized spat last season when the veteran linebacker was sent home for insubordination after Del Rio called him and a few other players out for a lack of effort in a recent game during a team meeting. Whatever Peterson said to his coach was enough to have him barred from the team’s facilities for two days and eventually demoted to a backup role.

Peterson won the starting spot back for the final two games of the season, but knew that his time in Jacksonville had come to an end.

“I knew (it was a foregone conclusion that I was leaving),” he said. “Four or five years ago, I probably wouldn’t have known, but I’ve been in this league a while and I can tell when the writing is on the wall. That was pretty much why I was trying to showcase my skills all throughout the season.”

The 10-year veteran received substantial interest in free agency, but waited on the right offer. With hopes of heading to Atlanta, his wish was granted when the team offered him a two-year contract worth a reported $6.5 million.

“It kind of played out slowly, because they still had (Keith) Brooking at the time and they hadn’t said if they were going to bring him back and they had (Michael) Boley and they said they were going to let him go,” he said. “I just let it run its course. In the back of my mind, I really wanted to go to Atlanta, but you can’t show your hand or press it. You just wait on them to call you. Once they called, within 24 hours, I was a Falcon.”

Peterson’s move to Atlanta reunites him with former Jacksonville defensive coordinator Mike Smith, who was hired in January as the team’s new head coach.

Smith’s first move was to move Peterson to outside linebacker, a position he naturally played as a second-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts before moving to middle linebacker with the Jaguars.

Peterson expects the change will help him move into the starting unit on a team that very much resembles the Colts teams he started with.

“The offense is already in place there,” he said of the Falcons, who are led by second-year standout quarterback Matt Ryan. “It reminds me of my first year, when I was in Indianapolis because they had Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison. It’s similar to Atlanta, because the question mark is on the defense.

“To me, that’s an ideal situation because I like the pressure. I’ve always been the underdog. I’ve always been the guy that had to work a little bit harder to get to the top and where I wanted. I think I’m comfortable in that role instead of being the guy that’s automatically put to the top.”