Adrian Peterson excited for a bigger role after Jay Gruden’s firing

The former Minnesota Vikings running back is expecting to get more opportunities with the Washington Redskins under interim head coach Bill Callahan.

Things haven’t exactly gone smoothly for former Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in his second season as a member of the Washington Redskins.

The year began with him being a healthy scratch and after an injury to Derrius Guice, the Redskins were forced to utilize Peterson in the offense despite head coach Jay Gruden’s lack of confidence in the veteran running back.

In four games this year, Peterson has only gained a total of 112 yards from scrimmage on 43 touches. The former Vikings running back has only been on the field for 29.2 percent of Washington’s offensive snaps this season.

After seeing their record drop to 0-5 last week with another loss, the Redskins decided to fire Gruden on Monday. As their interim head coach, Washington selected offensive line coach Bill Callahan for the role.

Since taking the reigns, Callahan has already made it known that the Redskins will be putting more of an emphasis on running the ball. Something that obviously has Peterson excited about his next few months in Washington.

The former Minnesota running back was recently asked about the Redskins’ new approach under their interim head coach.

"“Yeah, yeah, I’m hyped about it. You look at the first four weeks I played, it was like 11, 12, 10, seven carries. It was totally the opposite of what we did last year when we were more successful as a team.”"

So far this season, only the Miami Dolphins are attempting fewer rushing attempts per game than Washington.

As much as the current state of the NFL seems to put more of an emphasis on passing, the five teams with the most rushing attempts this year have a combined record of 20-5. So maybe Callahan is actually onto something?

Even if the Redskins’ new strategy on offense doesn’t end up working, Peterson is probably going to be a lot more involved in the team’s game plan than he was when Gruden was in charge.

The former Vikings running back is currently 34-years-old and in the middle of his 13th season in the league. If Peterson has anything left in the tank, it seems like he’s going to get the opportunity to prove it during the next few weeks.