At a time when no reports are emerging of teams interested in first-ballot Hall of Fame running back Adrian Peterson, plenty of reports are emerging regarding teams he’s interested in joining.
Buried in a Sunday notes column from Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald is this eye opener: “A source close to Peterson told the Herald that since [Peterson] has already earned a ton — more than $97 million is his career — it’s certainly something he’d consider. Peterson knows how it worked out for Darrelle Revis and Chris Long.”
The first question becomes how little would Peterson take to be a Patriot, particularly in relation to other offers he attracts? If the Patriots would pay, for example, $2 million plus incentives, that may not be much more than what otherwise will be there.
From New England’s perspective, the question becomes whether the team would pursue Peterson given his well-documented case of child abuse from 2014. The team that once renounced the draft rights to Christian Peter due to violence against women possibly would shy away from a player with Peterson’s off-field track record.
A separate question becomes whether Peterson would accept a game-plan-by-game-plan determination of his role. Some weeks, he’d get the ball a lot. Other weeks, hardly at all. For a guy who is used to getting the ball as much as he wants it, that could be a tough adjustment.
Also, if/when Peterson resorts to his past habit of dropping the ball while fighting for that extra yard, he’ll quickly be occupying space in Bill Belichick’s doghouse.
So while Peterson would consider the Patriots, Raider, Giants, Vikings, Texans, Buccaneers, and whichever next team he tells ESPN he’d be interested in joining, the real question is whether any team is interested in paying Peterson anything close to what he’s accustomed to receiving.