More yards from scrimmage during his age 24 season
This is another metric not intended to prove supremacy but rather to enlighten one’ s perspective.
At age 24 in 2009, Adrian Peterson played on what would turn out to be the most successful team of his career. The Vikings ventured to the NFC Championship that year only to be snakebitten by the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome.
In that season, Peterson notched 113.7 yards from scrimmage per game. He was named First-Team All-Pro that year and he also received a Pro Bowl invite.
Flash forward exactly 10 years to Minnesota’s 2019 team exacting some vengeance in the same building against the same Saints franchise before dropping a Divisional Round contest to the San Francisco 49ers.
For the 2019 season, Dalvin Cook averaged 118.1 yards from scrimmage per game. This will surprise some as it bested Peterson’s 2009 average by over four yards per contest.
Even more bizarre is that Peterson was afforded more touches per game in the respective seasons. In 2009, Peterson averaged 22.3 touches per matchup while Cook recorded 21.6 touches per game last year. So in the seasons of the same age for both men, Cook produced more yardage in fewer opportunities.