Colin Cowherd gets paid to formulate big opinions, and he did exactly that this week when he called Adrian Peterson the NFL’s most overrated star in the last decade.
Here’s his direct quote, courtesy of Fox Sports.
“I’ve said this for years about Adrian Peterson. He’s the most overrated NFL star in a decade. He didn’t translate to wins, but he was so powerful. And his big runs were so, were so Porsche-like. It was so dynamic that you forgot that he couldn’t block, he couldn’t catch, he didn’t practice, had off field issues, and fumbled a ton.”
… continued …
“Off field issues, fumbling issues, can’t catch, wasn’t particularly deft at blocking– didn’t want to practice at the end of his career. If you stacked up Adrian Peterson and Tiki Barber’s careers, they’re actually pretty close. But you think of Peterson as a rockstar. And Tiki Barber quit the sport.”
Cowherd isn’t wrong about Peterson’s fumbling problems. In 10 seasons (eight, really) he’s fumbled 42 times (including playoffs) and lost 29 of them, according to Football Reference.
As for the Tiki Barber comparison, let’s take a look (Barber played 10 seasons).
Barber fumbled more and was clearly a better receiver, but Peterson has found the end zone nearly twice as often as Barber did.
You be the judge. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Peterson > Barber, and it ain’t that close.
