Cam Akers is done for the season. The Vikings have one of the worst rushing games in the league. Is it time for the Vikings to call up the fourth star eliminated from the current season of Dancing with the Stars, Adrian Peterson?
After years of the run game leading the team’s offense, Vikings fans are witnessing what a bad run game looks like this season. Alexander Mattison was named the lead back after Dalvin Cook’s offseason departure but the fifth year back has struggled. He rushed for 155 yards on 39 carries in the opening three games of the season, bad enough that Minnesota traded for Akers only to have the 24-year-old suffer a ruptured Achilles in Sunday’s win over Atlanta.
Mattison remains the workhorse and behind him is 2022 fifth-round pick Ty Chandler. The list of free agents doesn’t inspire a ton of excitement, so why not see what 38-year-old Adrian Peterson has left in the tank?
At worst, he takes up a roster spot and provides nothing. At best, he adds depth and gives himself a shot at a storybook ending.
It’s been 702 days since Peterson last took an NFL snap. We know he’s still in some shape after his recent four-week stint on DWTS. During a recent guest appearance on Robert Griffin III’s podcast, Peterson said, “I can still play. I feel like I have the agility to get out there and outperform a lot of these kids that I see playing today.”
In the five seasons since he was released from Minnesota, Peterson played for six teams and rushed for 3,171 yards and 23 touchdowns with a yards-per-carry average of 3.9, which was a yard off from his average during his 10-year stint in Minnesota.
Could the big, bruising back be a goal line-only weapon for a team that’s scored just two rushing touchdowns all season? Both of the Vikings’ rushing touchdowns have come within the last two weeks, one of which belongs to quarterback Josh Dobbs.
If the Vikings are going to continue to mount a playoff charge they’ll need to help Mattison in the run game. Whether that’s more reliance on Chandler, the return of Kene Nwangwu, or a free agent signing, improving the run game has to be a priority over the second half of the season.
Why not take a shot and let Peterson finish his career in the same place it started?
