NFL Rumors: Adrian Peterson Names Three Teams of Interest
Adrian Peterson almost surely won’t be with the Minnesota Vikings next season, but he has named three teams he would be interested in playing for.
Adrian Peterson barely saw the field in the 2016 season for the Minnesota Vikings. The 31-year-old running back missed most of the year due to injuries, playing in a mere three games. Now the future of Peterson’s future in Minnesota is in question. With a massive salary cap hit on his contract next season, something has to break.
According to Overthecap.com, Peterson’s cap-hit for next season is $18 million. However, none of that money goes on the books if he’s a pre-June 1 cut. Subsequently, the assumption has been for some time that the Vikings would indeed cut the veteran running back. However, it might not be that simple.
While talking on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday, Peterson stated that he would like to stay with the Vikings next season. Doing so would likely entail taking a massive pay cut as Minnesota has plenty of other needs to address in the offseason. However, the interesting part of Peterson’s comments was the fact that he also named a trio of teams that he’d be interested in playing for next season.
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Peterson told ESPN that he would be inclined to play for the Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers or New York Giants in the 2017 season.
On the field, Houston makes the least sense of the three. Last offseason, the Texans signed Lamar Miller in free agency to a four-year contract. However, going to Houston would mean Peterson would be able to return to his hometown, which would obviously factor into the decision.
As far as the Buccaneers and Giants are concerned, both have (or are going to have) holes at running back moving forward. Tampa Bay is expected to cut Doug Martin this offseason after a suspension for Adderall ended his 2016 season. Meanwhile, the Giants searched all year between Rashad Jennings, Orleans Darkwa and rookie Paul Perkins for consistency in the run game. However, they always were left wanting.
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Again, Peterson expressed that he’d like to stay in Minnesota. However, if one of the three teams he mentioned—or even some other franchise—were to offer him substantially more money as he’ll be 32 years old at the beginning of next season, there’s at least the possibility that he’d take it.