Well, this sure sounds enticing for Giants fans.
With the team coming off a promising 11-5 season, albeit ended by a 38-13 beatdown in Green Bay, and with the running game in need of a major jolt, now Adrian Peterson says he's interested in playing for Big Blue if he can't work out a deal to remain with the Vikings.
The 31-year-old running back, who has had one of the most spectacular careers of any runner in NFL history and has a 2,000-yard rushing season on his resume, said on ESPN's "First Take" Thursday that he has thought about life after the Vikings. Among the teams he listed as potential destinations if he can't work out a deal to remain in Minnesota: the Buccaneers, the Texans and ... the Giants.
"If it doesn't happen, a place where me and my family are comfortable. Just an opportunity to compete for a championship," Peterson said about the possibility of no longer playing with the Vikings. "My main goal that I want to accomplish is go somewhere where I can win a championship. With that, having a good defense, a team that has a good offensive scheme as well. A great coaching staff, that really helps."
It's certainly an enticing possibility on paper, and it means the Vikings ultimately would be releasing Peterson because of the $18 million salary cap figure he carries in 2017. And with the Giants' running game being one of the team's biggest weaknesses last season _ they averaged just 88.2 yards per game, 29th in the NFL _ a big-time back with Peterson's pedigree certainly would help.
But dig deeper, and you'll see that Peterson isn't the right fit with the Giants.
Start with Peterson's age and health.
He turns 32 in March, a time when most running backs have either retired or are close to being done. The line of demarcation for most running backs' NFL usefulness is age 30, and Peterson is living on borrowed time.
Plus, he is coming off his second knee surgery in the last five seasons. In 2011, he needed reconstructive surgery, and then had a torn meniscus that kept him out of 13 games last season. Peterson made a remarkable comeback in 2012, rushing for a career-high 2,097 yards and establishing a new bar for recovery from ACL surgery.
But after rushing for 1,485 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2015, Peterson showed signs of regression even before he got hurt again last season. In his first two games before the knee injury, he ran 31 times for just 50 yards. He made it back in late December, played one game and had six carries for 22 yards before the Vikings shut him down the rest of the way.
Father Time is undefeated against every athlete, even the great ones, and Peterson is losing. Even if Peterson insists he still has a lot of football left in him.
"I would say five more years, and that's a number that I'm comfortable with in my heart playing," Peterson said. "It has a lot to do with just being around my kids more is the reason I say five, but I definitely have five more strong years."
He's dreaming if he thinks he can play that much longer in a league that routinely gets younger and cheaper.
The Giants certainly can use an upgrade over Rashad Jennings and Paul Perkins, but Peterson would not be the answer. And not strictly based on his advanced age and knee problems. He's simply not the right fit in Ben McAdoo's offense.
McAdoo has done away with a fullback in his scheme. Peterson is a much more productive runner with a fullback as his lead blocker. He has stated publicly that preference on numerous occasions, and the Vikings have tailored their offense to a two-back set, even though most teams now routinely go with one back and three receivers. So if McAdoo doesn't change course on a very fundamental aspect of his offense _ and expect that to be the case _ then Peterson would be miscast in the coach's offense.
And there's one more factor, something that has nothing to do with football, which makes a Peterson signing problematic: his previous history with domestic violence.
Peterson missed nearly the entire 2014 season after being indicted in September on a felony charge of injury to a child for using a wooden switch to punish his 4-year-old son. He later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge. The NFL placed Peterson on the Commissioner's Exempt List after the indictment, and he did not play again that season.
Peterson was reinstated after undergoing league-mandated counseling, and while he has not been in trouble since, the Giants will have to think long and hard about signing a player who engaged in such reprehensible behavior. The team was excoriated for its handling of kicker Josh Brown, who signed a two-year extension last spring even though the team knew he faced a suspension stemming from an arrest in 2015 for hitting his wife.
Giants president and co-owner John Mara stood by Brown but eventually decided to release the kicker after court documents revealed Brown had admitted to years-long abuse of his wife. Does the owner want to answer more questions about signing a player with such a sordid past? Mara's reputation took a big enough hit with the Brown fiasco, so taking on another player connected to such a disturbing issue would be the wrong move.
Add it all up, and Peterson lining up in the Giants' backfield in 2017 simply doesn't make sense.
