Adrian Peterson Won’t Suit Up This Preseason After All

As late as Sunday, we were still being told by Leslie Frazier that the Vikings were considering letting Adrian Peterson see some action in this Friday’s preseason game vs. San Diego. But it turns out the Vikings weren’t considering it and in fact never intended letting Peterson suit up at all until the regular season opener. This according to Adam Schefter, who cites the old familiar “league sources.”

Interesting strategy by the Vikings. Float the idea of the team’s star player making it on the field just long enough to sell some tickets, even though you secretly never meant to let him play. I wonder if there are any ticked off fans out there who purchased a ticket for the game thinking they’d get to see a little Adrian. Well screw them, I guess.

Of course in the grand scheme of things it makes more sense not to let Adrian play at all this preseason. It’s just not a risk worth taking with your biggest offensive weapon. Give him lots of reps in practice with limited hitting, then work him slowly into the mix once the regular season starts, knowing you have another running back in Toby Gerhart who can handle a big part of the load until Adrian’s all the way back.

Their careful approach with Adrian makes all the sense in the world. What doesn’t make sense is dangling the prospect of him playing when you never meant for him to play at all. Not that I think the Vikings are obligated to tell me every detail of every internal discussion. Obviously that’s not going to happen and it shouldn’t happen. But in this case? It’s just curious that they were still openly putting it out there that Adrian might play.

I wonder when they were planning on pulling the plug. Some time this week? Hour before the game? How long would they have carried out the farce had Schefter’s report not busted them? How many more tickets did they think they could squeeze out of hard-working Adrian Peterson fans before admitting, whoops, he’s not playing after all?

Maybe I’m being too cynical and paranoid. Yeah that’s it.

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