A potential trade of running back Adrian Peterson would have plenty of moving parts. By all appearances, none of those parts have been moving, yet. At this point, the fact that nothing is happening in connection with a potential trade makes it less likely that anything will.
Any team interested in trading for Peterson would have to work out a new contract with him. Likewise, any team would want to give him a full physical in order to determine that the man who has played in one game since December 2013 remains fit and able to do so.
That process would require communications between the Vikings and a suitor for Peterson, communications between the Vikings and Peterson’s agent, and communications between a suitor for Peterson and his agent. It would be difficult if not impossible to keep those communications away from the media.
So with absolutely nothing currently happening, it appears that a trade won’t be occurring before or during the 2015 NFL draft. Which makes a trade of Peterson at any point this year less likely.
The Vikings are banking on Peterson eventually accepting the reality that the Vikings own his rights through 2017, and the Vikings hope that the passage of time will allow Peterson to embrace the fact that they are willing to pay him $13 million this season. The question becomes whether Peterson will buy in -- or whether he’ll engage in a T.O.-style effort to get the Vikings to throw up their hands and trade him during or after the 2015 season.
Ten years ago, the Eagles refused to give Terrell Owens more money, so he tried to make the team sufficiently miserable that it traded or cut him. Peterson doesn’t seem to be wired to do the same thing, but if the determination that fueled his return from ACL surgery three years ago gets pointed toward getting out of Minnesota, it would be unwise to bet against him.
To date, Peterson has yet to say he definitely wants out. Perhaps he realizes that, regardless of any frustration he may be feeling toward the Vikings for the perception that they failed to fight hard enough to get him back on the field in 2014, the entire ordeal flowed from his own actions. The Vikings did nothing to cause or to contribute to a situation that left them without their best player for 15 games, and Peterson’s presence for even a handful of games could have boosted a team that finished 7-9 to the postseason.
This year, the playoffs become much more possible with Peterson than without him. With no contending teams rushing to add Peterson, his chances of playing beyond Week 17 may be no better elsewhere than they are in Minnesota, which could make for an even more compelling story of redemption.