Don’t Expect to See Much of Adrian Peterson on Sunday

The Vikings are taking it very slow with Adrian Peterson as he recovers from knee surgery. They held him out of the whole preseason – the only sensible move – and now it appears they’re mulling holding him out of the season opener against Jacksonville as well.

“We recognize if he’s able to get in this first ball game, it’ll be with limited exposure,” Frazier said after practice on Monday. “We’ll talk about it as the week goes on and see how he’s doing and if it’s even a valuable option to let him play.”

Frazier said Peterson’s status remains a game-time decision. So if you’re planning on going to the game Sunday? Go ahead and keep those plans cause there’s some chance you’ll get to see Adrian Peterson. Unless he has a bad week of practice, in which case you’ll get to see no Adrian but a whole lot of Toby Gerhart and a smattering of Matt Asiata. That’s still worth the money, right?

All kidding aside, it’s probably the right move to let this go all the way up till game time. Let Adrian have another week of practice then see how he feels. If he feels good to go, let him get out there and experience some contact. That will help him motivation-wise for the coming week. Cause we know Peterson needs plenty of motivation. He hasn’t been completely 100% motivated from the first second after he learned his knee was torn up.

This time I’m really putting all kidding aside and asking a serious question: What exactly would be gained by letting Adrian play a couple snaps? Shouldn’t the plan be “wait till Adrian is all the way back and let him go at it 100%?” The Vikings surely get this. And that’s why, in my mind, the whole “limited exposure” thing is a load of baloney. Either Adrian’s ready to go 100% or he’s not. And if they’re talking about holding him back? Then they’ve probably already made up their minds that he’s not going to play and for some reason they’re fudging in their public statements.

I can’t imagine why they would fudge in their public statements. They’re not worried about fan interest are they? Not with this juggernaut of a team.

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