Falcons defensive tackle Corey Peters remembers the day last offseason when he suffered a stress fracture while working out at a local gym.
The injury, which occurred before the team’s offseason workouts started, required surgery and kept him out of the workouts. He also missed the first six games of the regular season.
A year later, Peters, at 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds, was dancing around offensive linemen Wednesday with the mobility of a massive ballerina at the Falcons’ mandatory minicamp.
The foot is fine, and Peters appears ready to fulfill the promise that he flashed in the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
“Corey has had an excellent offseason,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “Last year, he was not able to do anything on his foot.”
As a rookie, Peters, a third-round draft pick, started six of 15 games and had 40 tackles, a sack and a pass breakup.
He moved into the starting lineup full time in 2011 and made 33 tackles, had three sacks, two pass breakups, a fumble recovery and a touchdown in 15 starts.
After starting last season on the physically-unable-to-perform list, he struggled. Peters started seven of nine games and finished with 21 tackles, a forced fumble and one pass breakup. He also registered a sack against San Francisco in the NFC Championship game.
This offseason he’s looked much quicker and agile during the OTAs and minicamp.
“He looks like the Corey that we saw two years ago in terms of his suddenness and even the makeup in terms of his body,” Smith said. “We’re excited about having Corey back, and we anticipate that he’s going to be even better than he was two years ago.”
Peters, who will be in the last year of his original four-year contract, acknowledges that last season was difficult.
“It was really tough because I missed so much time, and I missed a huge part of the offseason,” Peters said. “I came back after week six and practiced, but in-season practices are not like training-camp practices.
“It’s very difficult to kind of get your reps that you need to get back into shape. I started to feel better toward the end of the year, but overall I felt like last year was a disappointment for me personally.”
Peters believes that he has benefited from the team’s restructured weight-training program under new head strength-and-conditioning coach A.J. Neibel.
“I know that I’m stronger,” Peters said. “I just feel really good about this year. I feel like I’m in a good place now heading into training camp.”
He still wants to shed a few pounds.
“I’m probably a little bigger, but around camp I’ll be about the same,” Peters said. “I’m definitely stronger and feeling quicker. That’s a good thing. The new weight program has been really good for me. I think I’ve already seen increases in every number, and I still have a few weeks to go before I (cutback) for (training) camp.”
The Falcons have gone back to more traditional lifts for their linemen, such as the bench press and squats. They also are lifting much more weight.
“I think that’s good for the offensive and defensive linemen,” Peters said. “But we are also doing some of the same things as far as flexibility training.”
Peters and the rest of the defensive linemen have heard about the team’s discussions to bring in defensive tackle Richard Seymour, a seven-time Pro Bowler and former Georgia Bulldogs standout.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Peters said. “At the end of the day, my job is to go out there and be the best player that I can be. … I’m welcoming of anything that’s going to help us get to the Super Bowl.”
Peters doesn’t want to dwell on needing to re-establish himself.
“I don’t think any more than anybody else, but I’m very aware that this is a league where if you don’t perform they’re going to find somebody that will,” Peters said. “That’s no secret.”
Peters is not focusing on landing his next contract.
“I’m of the mindset that it’s an evaluation process every day,” Peters said. “If you don’t perform, they are going to get you out of here.”
He plans to perform.
