Pro Football Focus may have just given Vikings running back Adrian Peterson all the motivation he’ll need to have another great season with the Vikings.
The website, which is well known and respected for football analysis, snubbed Peterson by leaving him off of their Top 101 NFL Players list.
Peterson won his third career rushing title last season with 1,485 yards and 11 touchdowns, while averaging 4.5 yards per carry. He was named first-team All-Pro and helped carry the Vikings to the NFC North Championship and a return to the playoffs.
The website even calls AP the best pure runner in the league, with the ball in his hands. But while running backs like Doug Martin, Jonathan Stewart and Lamar Miller are on their list – Peterson is nowhere to be found.
In a league that's ever more pass focused, Adrian Peterson is a player the team doesn't trust to even be on the field in passing situations
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) May 13, 2016
Here’s why, according to a piece from writer Sam Monson.
“Peterson also fumbled the ball six times, regressing back to his early-career struggles in that area. He gained 4.5 yards per carry, but his 2.3 yards per carry after contact was bettered by 28 other runners. 25 other RBs broke tackles at a higher rate than Peterson, and of course he is bad enough as a blocker and receiver that he effectively is only a two-down player that doesn’t even see the field in the most critical situations for the Vikings.”
Peterson was in the news last week when he told Peter King’s MMQB that he thought the Vikings had all of the pieces in place to win it all this season.
“Offensively just going off of what we were able to accomplish this year and we really weren’t the type of offense that we wanted to be. But you look at that and we were right there in the mix of really going on to play Arizona and end up in the NFC Championship game with what we had offensively,” said Peterson. “With the moves we’ve made this offseason with [Alex] Boone and [Andre] Smith and then some of these young guys that really have a lot to prove, that we drafted.”
While Peterson was snubbed from the Top 101 players list, four other Vikings made it.
- LB – Anthony Barr No. 20
- S – Harrison Smith No. 22
- C – Joe Berger No. 40
- DT – Linval Joseph No. 48
Peterson shouldn’t feel too badly about being left off the list of the Top 101 Greatest NFL Players, he had some good company from the division. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was also snubbed.
