As it was reported over the weekend, Adrian Peterson is not expected to attend Minnesota Vikings organized team activities this week in Eden Prairie.
The story has since developed.
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robison, citing a source close to Peterson, reports that Peterson is skipping the voluntary workouts to further show the Vikings that he’s serious about playing elsewhere. The Vikings have declined to trade him and have full control over the running back’s contract for the next three seasons.
While it’s been reported that Peterson’s agent, Ben Dogra, is attempting to reconstruct the contract to get Peterson guaranteed money, which he has none remaining on his current deal, the struggle between the former MVP and the Vikings has nothing to do with dollars.
Simply: Peterson wants out.
“The source said that for Peterson it has “never been about the money,” and that the running back is adamant about playing elsewhere.”
https://twitter.com/CharlesRobinson/status/602658392901955585
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio says trading Peterson now would be more difficult than it would have been before the NFL Draft.
“Whether it’s about the money or not (it is), the Vikings aren’t about to trade him — absent an offer that would give them no choice but to do it. With the 2015 draft over, it will be harder for an interested team to pull it off.”
The source told Robinson that Peterson has not yet decided if he’ll skip mandatory minicamp in June or training camp. Failing to attend mandatory minicamp would likely result in heavy fines from the team.
According to Pro Football Talk, Peterson can be fined a total of $72,920 for missing the three day mandatory minicamp June 16-18.
The plan, at least for this week, is for Adrian Peterson to be in Texas, not Minn, for OTAs (as @christomasson said). Could change next week
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 25, 2015
One thing to keep in mind going forward is that the Vikings have maintained their stance that they expect Peterson to fulfill his contract going forward, and head coach Mike Zimmer recently said he has an “indication” of when he believes Peterson will return to the team.
Can't think of a less sympathetic holdout figure than Adrian Peterson right now
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) May 25, 2015
