Washington got one of the free-agent steals of the year in 2018, signing running back Adrian Peterson in late August and watching him become the team’s offensive MVP for the season.
This time around, they clearly have buyer’s remorse, after giving Peterson a $1.5 million signing bonus and another $1 million in salary to stay with the team and, for now, not using him at all.
They may have a bigger issue than wasted money, however, now that news has trickled out that Peterson will be inactive on Sunday against the Eagles. Teammates, per a league source, are even more upset with the decision to not dress Peterson than Peterson is. Regarded by some as the best back in training camp, the question was supposed to be how many touches Peterson would lose to second-year second rounder Derrius Guice, not whether one of them would be standing on the sidelines in street clothes on game day.
And Guice, who tore an ACL in the 2018 preseason, will get his official NFL baptism without the safety net of a top-five left tackle in Trent Williams, who continues to hold out.
But as the dysfunctional team continues to do dysfunctional things, they got one thing right: Washington has yet to name team captains for 2019. Last year, the team captains were announced before the season-opening game. This year, if a vote were held before the news that Peterson won’t be dressing on Sunday, he quite possibly would have secured a “C”.
He still might do so anyway — if the votes are counted in the same numbers as they are cast.