Minnesota Vikings fans need to move on from Adrian Peterson
The Minnesota Vikings are cruising along in the backfield right now. That means that everyone can stop even thinking about Adrian Peterson.
Do you ever go on Twitter and ask yourself why someone is bringing up something? That’s the feeling I had when I was on Twitter on Tuesday night and the Star Tribune’s Mark Craig was tweeting about former Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
Craig wrote about the demise of Peterson for the Star Tribune and brought that to Twitter, of course. He then said that Peterson would be all that Latavius Murray is doing behind the offensive line and more this season. I don’t blame Craig for bringing this up, it’s his job, it just brings out all of the hot takes. Included mine now, I guess.
We, as Vikings observers and fans, need to drop the concept of Adrian Peterson. Don’t even mention his name because there is no point in bringing him up when it comes to this current Vikings team.
First of all, Peterson never would have accepted a backup role and the Vikings needed to draft a running back in order to keep the position youthful. The rookie running back the Vikings had in Dalvin Cook was the best running back in the game before he got hurt a few weeks into the season. Peterson wouldn’t be getting any playing time on a fully healthy Vikings team right now.
Right now, the Vikings are running with a tandem of Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon. Recently, it has become more of Murray’s job. Comparing Murray and Peterson straight up this year gives the edge to Murray. Murray has 572 rushing yards and five touchdowns this season while Peterson has 156 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Murray has accomplished that on ten less carries than Peterson this season.
The Vikings offensive line is magnificent and, yes, it would be the best line that Peterson ever has run behind, but Peterson has hit that running back cliff. Peterson hasn’t looked good this season, only three times has he run for over 35 rushing yards in a game and only twice over 100 yards. The skill set has diminished and no matter how good your line is, you still need to have some exceptional skill to take advantage of it.
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Peterson is wearing out his welcome with teams now, too. It happened in Minnesota and he probably should have been shown the door years earlier. It only took four weeks for Peterson to be banished out of New Orleans this season. He seems to not be good for the locker room. Compare that sentiment to a locker room that seems to be in perfect harmony right now with the Minnesota Vikings.
Also, Peterson seemingly needs to be the man. That’s the reason we don’t know a lot about Teddy Bridgewater as a quarterback and that’s the reason why Peterson quickly wears out his welcome. If Peterson still demanded to be the man, there is no way that Case Keenum is currently playing at an MVP level right now.
This is a long way of saying that we all need to move on from Adrian Peterson. Yes, he’s one of the best players ever to put on the Vikings purple, but he no longer belongs on the Vikings team. Vikings fans should be thankful he isn’t.
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The Vikings, without Peterson, will be taking on the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The game is set for a noon kick and can be seen on CBS.