Ok, I admit I’m a Vikings fan but still, Adrian “All Day” Peterson is on pace to have the best rookie year ever by a running back. His game against the Bears on sunday was monstrous, with 224 rushing yards, 361 all purpose yards, three long touchdowns and better than 11 yards per carry. He’s already got 601 yards rushing in his first 5 games and he’s still technically only a backup. He actually got fewer carries against the Bears than Vikings starter, Chester Taylor.
The Fox announcers were saying during the game that AP is already better than Tomlinson and should already be considered to be the best RB in the league. I’d like to believe that, but isn’t it a little premature to say that? I mean the kids’ oviously got some incredible talent but calling him the best in the NFL after only 5 games might be getting just a little over-excited.
On the other hand, other than LT, I don’t know who could be said to be better than All Day. Certainly not Reggie Bush, who I think has been a slight disappointment. He’s not a bust, don’t get me wrong, he just hasn’t been the game-changing superstar he was hyped up to be.
Anyway, I am incapable of being objective about the Vikings and am too dazzled by AP’s day against the Bears to make an impartial assessment of Peterson vs. the rest of the league. For those who don’t bleed purple, how good do you think this kid really is or is going to be?
I’m normally not given to overstatement or hyperbole when it comes to football, but I think Adrian Peterson is not only the best back in the NFL when healthy, I think he would have been after his freshman year in college. The only, ONLY limiting factor ever has been his durability. All of his other attributes are off the charts, including the intangibles like desire, heart and work ethic.
As a Packer fan I can honestly say that I do not like the idea of Adrian Peterson being inthe NFC North. I think he is already a tremendous back, the best or not is kind of academic (too few games to tell), it is obvious he is already within the league elite. I was thinking about this earlier, I think for this seasopn I still prefer LT and probably Ronnie Brown as having better seasons, but only just.
Running back is an incredibly tough position and great back can wear down quickly, so we’ll need to see how he holds up, but he is already one of the small handful of elite backs in the league.
It will take all of five minutes for NFL teams to stop a team that can’t pass (I’m looking at you Tavaris Jackson) and a team that can’t defend against the pass (I’m looking at everyone not named Darren Sharper)
The Bears were playing 8 in the box almost the whole game on sunday. It didn’t help them much.
However I don’t disagree that Vikings, as a team, have problems. If it wasn’t for AP, they’d probably be 0 and 5. If nothing else he gives fans a reason to keep watching (and even buying tickets for) a bad team, kind of like Barry Sanders used to do for the Lions. We can only hope that the lousiness around AP doesn’t last a career like it did for #20.
As a lifelong Vikings fan (and a graduate of OU ) I can’t really be objective either but the day that Minnesota drafted him was one of the happiest days of my life. Those of us that watched him every Saturday knew that the Vikings stole him with the seventh pick. At 6-2, 220 and the fastest player for OU, I can’t see how 6 teams could pass on him. I’m not worried about his durability but then again, I’m not signing his paychecks. I think the collarbone was just a freak occurrence. It did take him a long time to get over his high ankle sprain but I don’t think that that’s uncommon.
Sports Illustrated has him rated as the top rookie. If he isn’t the top running back yet, I honestly believe that it’s just a matter of time. Of course, he’ll probably play better once he’s named a starter.
Adrian Peterson can’t even beat out Cedric Benson as the starter on the Bears. Oh wait, you mean the OTHER Adrian Peterson, the one who the Bears held to only 224 yards last week? Nevermind.
The Bears game really bumped up his averages. In his first 4 games he wasn’t averaging 100 a game. It’s a bit absurd to do these projections right after he had a monster game.
Adrian Peterson was one of the most obvious guys to project on the next level in college football of at least the last decade. The guy was absolutely amazing for Oklahoma. Darren McFadden is a similar talent.
In his first four games he had the following stats:
Atl: 103 yds (he also had a 60 yard catch and run for a receiving touchdown).
Det: 66 yds
KC: 102 yds
GB; 112 yds
That adds up to an average of 95.8 yards a game, which is close enough to 100, especially since he’s actually only had one game where he didn’t rush for 100 yards.
It also needs to be factored in that he shares carries with Chester Taylor and that he’s racked up all these yards averaging fewer than 20 carries per game. His yards per carry before the monster game was already over 5 (now it’s a ridiculous 6.3).
He already had some pretty gaudy stats even before the Bears game…plus monster games should count for something, shouldn’t they?
And remember, in the Green Bay game, he played only the first half - if he even touched the ball in the second half (I don’t recall), it certainly was only once or twice. (And what’s up with that decision, Childress? The hell?)
112 yards in only two quarters of play isn’t too shabby at all.
Based on longevity, I’d still make LT the #1 running back in the game (and he’d have the numbers to prove it if Norv Turner had been smart enough to give him the ball more).
But Peterson is damn good. I saw him a lot when he was at Oklahoma, and he always ran roughshod over the Longhorns. I happen to think Adrian deserved to win the Heisman Trophy in his freshman year.
My ONLY concern about him was his health- but I’m not surprised by what he’s accomplished. I knew he could do all this if his body wasn’t too fragile.
Are you sure they didn’t mean as a pure runner? Tomlinson is a better back because he can pass block; once AP gets up to speed in the passing game he will be the better back.
It’s probably worth pointing out that Peterson often was getting 8-12 yards downfield before first contact against the Bears, and that when said contact occurred, it was usually a safety trying to arm-tackle after taking a horrible angle. Of course, I’ve only seen highlights, not each of his carries, but on at least 5 or 6 plays (all the big plays, that is to say), he was at a dead sprint into the secondary before he had to think about making anybody miss. Some of those runs looked like kick returns with the wall he had in front of him. So, I mean, yeah, if you find yourself in that situation often enough, and you’re as big and strong and fast as Peterson is, you’re going to average 6 yards a carry.
Which isn’t to say that Peterson’s not been a savage and terrifying monster since his freshman year, but there are a few backs in the NFL who would have been able to break off some really long runs behind that line against that defense, it seemed to me. He’s really, really good, but jesus, so are those blocks.
PS - the main problem with Peterson is that he’s one day going to suffer the most horrific injury in NFL history. Just like Cadillac Williams, the man runs too hard for his own damn good.
I don’t remember now, but I think they probably did mean just as a pure runner. Even so, I was surprised to hear them saying it, and they were talking that way before he even starting ripping off those giagantic runs.
How did you manage that? I’m assuming you got LT first but did AP actually sit there until the 2nd round? I doubt that will ever happen again. He’s a gold plated fantasy player right now.
) I can’t really be objective either but the day that Minnesota drafted him was one of the happiest days of my life. Those of us that watched him every Saturday knew that the Vikings stole him with the seventh pick. At 6-2, 220 and the fastest player for OU, I can’t see how 6 teams could pass on him. I’m not worried about his durability but then again, I’m not signing his paychecks. I think the collarbone was just a freak occurrence. It did take him a long time to get over his high ankle sprain but I don’t think that that’s uncommon.
