Adrian Peterson and the Saints believe he's 'lost nothing', and both will tell you why
METAIRIE, La. — Adrian Peterson was the 2003 U.S. Army National Player of the Year as a senior at Palestine (Texas) High, and Rivals.com's No. 1-ranked prospect in the class of 2004. He was a Heisman finalist as a freshman at Oklahoma, and rushed for 4,041 yards in 31 games there. The Vikings drafted him seventh overall in 2007, he was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and earned All-Pro in six of his first seven NFL seasons.
Even after missing all but one game of the 2014 season while facing child abuse charges, he came back to win his fifth rushing title in 2015.
So this spring was different.
For the first time in his life, Peterson's ability was being questioned. That's how it goes for a 32-year-old back coming off knee surgery with 2,418 carries in the rear view mirror. Peterson was unemployed for 47 days, without a football team for the first time since he can remember, until the Saints signed him in late April.
“Yeah, it was different,” Peterson said in a quiet moment Wednesday. “But I knew coming off the meniscus tear, it could happen. If I came out and led the league in rushing, I'd have been off the market. That wasn't the situation I was in. So in my mind — this is the situation, this is the position you're in, it's not what you envisioned going into the offseason, but this is where you're at, so how are you gonna handle it?
“I got down at times. But I always stayed up too. I was able to allow myself to get down, and I felt bad when I needed to. I'd snap right out of it; I knew when I had to tighten up. That's all it was.”
Peterson feels at home now in New Orleans. If you ask him if he's lost much of what he had when he was at his best in Minnesota, you'll see that anything that might've gotten him down in March or April absolutely hasn't kept him there.
“No,” he answered, maintaining eye contact. “I've lost nothing.”
Not many running backs make it to age 32 in the NFL, especially ones who have the mileage and employ the kind of jackhammer style that the former MVP does.
And I know what you're thinking, because it's what I was thinking. I'm not here to convince you Peterson is going to shed precedent the way he has so many tacklers over his decade in the NFL. We'll see whether he can do it or not in the fall. You could fill a warehouse with a record of impressive Junes that meant little in October.
What I will say is this: He believes it's going to happen. And he'll tell you why.
“It's knowing what I was able to do on the field before I got injured, knowing that the meniscus was completely healed; I tore 90 percent of it, and it was no longer a factor. And then it was getting into my regimen — nothing had changed,” Peterson said. “I was still explosive, fast, working with all the young guys, I didn't have no doubt at all.
“Outside sources that doubt because of age? I led the league when I was 30 and it was the same thing then. He's going downhill. I played with a mediocre offensive line and still led the league at 30. I just look at things different. If I started buying into what everyone was saying, I probably would've retired three or four years ago.”
The truth is what I saw Wednesday didn't reveal a ton. Mark Ingram took the first snap with Drew Brees' group during 11-on-11 walkthroughs, and Peterson was first when the Saints went closer to full speed. Peterson still looks fearsome physically, and glides confidently through a front seven like he's on ice skates. He dropped a ball in the flat during 7-on-7. Other than that, there weren't many hiccups.
But if you talk to the guys who really know — his teammates — they pretty much uniformly glow about him. When I asked Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro, a native Texan, he joked, “I mean, you don't want to get my opinion. My whole life growing up, I thought Adrian Peterson was the man."
And then Vaccaro, and a lot of his teammates, told me that Peterson still is the man. Here's a sampling …
• Vaccaro: “It's his motor. Even when we do walkthroughs, he's so explosive. What did it for me, when we put on the tape a couple times, he's still pulling off on DBs. And he's gliding. It's pretty amazing. You see the way he works, you see the body, it's incredible. It doesn't seem like he's lost a step.”
• DT Sheldon Rankins: “There were two moments where I was like, 'That's Adrian Peterson.' We were doing agility drills, and just watching him move, I'm like, 'That's the guy they're counting out?' He looked as explosive as I've ever seen anyone. And then, might've been a couple weeks ago, there was one run, he busted through the line and he just hits a gear and starts pulling away from people. And that's when I was like, 'He hasn't lost it whatsoever.'”
• RT Zach Strief: “You deal with the preconceived notion that you have from afar — a running back that's been injured, people weren't beating on his door to sign him. You have that perception beforehand. He's breaking down. Some idiot said he's a 'glorified fullback' at this point. And early in OTAs, one of the first couple days, we saw him make a cut and we were all like, Whoa. It just looks different. … It was just a cutback. It wasn't anything crazy, but he puts his foot in the ground and goes.”
• QB Drew Brees: “He's coming off an injury, 32-year-old running back and typically that's over the hill, but there's an intensity there, a presence, a work ethic. And you watch him, and you're like, Wow, I don't see how anybody tackles that guy. … And his size. Usually, if I close my eyes and put the ball out, this is where I'm handing it off to most running backs. [He lifts his arms up.] And here's where I'm gonna hand it off to Adrian Peterson, just because he's that much bigger and taller.”
• CB Delvin Breaux: “The first time he was in weight room, we're in the offseason program and he was in there, and he had the box at 42, 48 (inches) and he was single legging, jumping on the box. It was like, 'Damn, that guy just had knee surgery?' That was the first time I had a 'wow' moment, and then seeing him on the field, it's crazy. He's still got the juice. I can't wait to play with him.”
• C Max Unger: “We're seeing the things that we've historically seen from him. I've played against him going back to 2005, in college, and he looks great. Watching him go downhill and hit the line of scrimmage, it's impressive. It's what we've seen in the past. … From the time he gets the ball to when he gets to the line of scrimmage, it's evident he's done something right this offseason. It looks fantastic.”
• WR Mike Thomas: “We're out there practicing on the turf, and he's literally wearing Adidas regular shoes. Not turf shoes. Not cleats. And he's still cutting and he's still full speed. There's no slowing down and you'd think he has cleats on. And you look at his feet and he's got the normal shoes on.”
• Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen: “There are have been some plays where it's, Wooo! You didn't really see him come through the hole, and it's like, where'd he come from? You see that burst and explosion.”
Again, it's June. And none of these guys are going to bash Peterson anyway. But my observation being here? The way the guys' eyes lit up talking about those moments made you feel like they just spotted Big Foot.
“It's still just such a surprise that it actually happened,” Brees said. “We really signed Adrian Peterson? Mark is such a great player, and so it was amazing he came to us, and I think it says a lot about how he views our organization. …. Knowing that he wants this to be his last stop. And here we go. That puts a little added responsibility on all of us — 'OK, this is our window, let's go do it.'”
Peterson says now that the idea his career could be over after last year never entered his mind. And Vikings staffers told me they didn't think he'd lost much physically before he got hurt last year. The bigger questions, as they saw them, would be avoiding injury at his age, whether he could adjust his game to fit a new offense, and if he'd be OK with playing in a rotation.
We don't have an answer to the first question yet, but there are good signs on the other two counts.
“He went from being what he is — which is a first-ballot Hall of Famer — to, 'Hey, you're gonna split carries and come off some,'” Strief said. “It could be a tough situation and go in a negative direction. It's been the opposite. He's come in and worked his butt off with the guys. He really is one of the guys, which is probably nice for him too.”
Ideally, the Saints can pair Ingram and a revitalized Peterson to lighten the load on the 38-year-old Brees, who said he'd be fine with an attack that's more run-heavy than the pass-happy Saints have been.
History is not on the side of it all happening the way these guys are hoping that it will as Peterson slashes through the box in non-contact 11-on-11 work. But that's part of what's pushing him now. Like he did in coming back off ACL surgery to nearly break Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, or winning a rushing title at 30, Peterson wants to prove he can do what logic says he can't.
“It definitely motivates me. It's not at the top of the list,” Peterson said. “If I had 100 things, it'd probably be right there at 90. But I do want to show people that, Hey, age is all up here. It's mental. Take care of your body and do the right things, you can do some incredible things. You let your mind be defeated and you'll be in trouble.”
Peterson doesn't think he is, despite what conventional wisdom would tell him. And I'm not going to tell you that I know where this one is headed. But based on what I saw and heard here, it'll be fun to find out.
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