Somebody’s got to say it…If Adrian Peterson becomes available will the Vikings consider?!

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Oct 1, 2017

Before you start hating on me just based on the title of this article, just hear me out. It’s a hypothetical situation that is highly unlikely but with the timeliness of both situations it cannot be ignored.

Today at U.S. Bank Stadium, it appears that we lost our starting running back as rookie Dalvin Cook went down with a non-contact knee injury crumbling on the field and fumbling the football. ProFootballDoc began the speculation assessing it as an ACL tear just by watching the video out in San Diego. Then you have Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero tweeting that their sources are putting it as a full ACL tear. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow morning at 11:00 the official results of the MRI as Mike Zimmer takes to the podium.

So let’s rewind our Delorean time machine and travel across the pond to London earlier this morning. It was a stinker of a game between the Miami Dolphins and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints came out on top but it was some of the intricacies in the Saints backfield that I want to look at today.

Today’s game saw Mark Ingram get the lionshare of the carries, as it has been for most of the season. Safe to say Ingram is set as the starting back in the backfield. Then it was rookie Alvin Kamara who averaged 5.0 yards per carry on five carries on the ground while adding in 10 receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown through the air…then there was Adrian Peterson. Today’s line saw Peterson go 4 carries for 4 yards, an average of 1 yard per carry. Unfortunately that wasn’t a surprise or an anomaly this year.

In four games with the Saints Peterson has 81 yards on 27 carries and has already splashed with a few negative video clips and quotes. It’s starting to become very clear that the Saints experiment with Adrian Peterson in New Orleans is not working out.

So might they be in the market to eat the guaranteed money and cut Peterson? That’s the speculation. He’s not giving anything on the field and hasn’t stayed quiet about his role either. Might it be time to cut ties?

Then let’s put those two scenarios together.

Cook gets injured, Peterson become available…are the Vikings interested?

Minnesota already chose Latavius Murray over Peterson once in the offseason, that wasn’t an accident. But as Pete Bercich said best during the broadcast, Murray is slow and “looked like the Titanic making a u-turn” on his screen pass in the flats today. Then there’s Jerick McKinnon. It’s been an interesting go with McKinnon who has been mediocre at best as the team’s kick returner and he hasn’t factored into the mix as a running bak on offense.

So the question then becomes, with an improved offensive line and Thielen/Diggs/Rudy catching balls through the air, could a guy like Adrian offer that more than the stable you have in house now? It could be argued that he fits this new and improved Vikings squad better than he does the present Saints lineup.

Other teams like Arizona might be interested. Other feelings will have to be put aside after the ‘break-up’ here in Minnesota, but it’s a talker and a mighty juicy one if you ask me.

Time to sound off, what do you think?

I guess we’ll just have to see around and wait to see what happens with Cook, what happens with Peterson and then go from there.

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