Fantasy Index

Factoid

Adrian Peterson

Fumbles one obstacle to his job search

Adrian Peterson is looking for a new job, but hasn't found any takers as of yet. Sounds like the biggest obstacle is his contract demands; he reportedly wants to be paid like an elite back. But he's 32 years old, at a position where teams are increasingly content to get by with lesser, cheaper players.

So between his age and his contract demands, Peterson will probably to have to wait until at least after the draft (and probably training camp) to find work. He also missed most of last season due to injury, and he's one of the league's more fumble-prone backs. All that will force him to lower his price before he gets signed.

Over the last two seasons, 57 running backs have touched the ball at least 200 times. Only two have more fumbles than Peterson (and one of those players has touched the ball a lot more). The five backs who have a higher rate of fumbling in that span include a player who was benched, one who doesn't have a job at present, and three committee backs.

RUNNING BACK FUMBLES, 2015-2016
PlayerTouchFumPct
Alfred Morris, Wa.-Dal.28500.00%
Jerick McKinnon, Minn.27600.00%
Tim Hightower, N.O.26600.00%
Danny Woodhead, S.D.20300.00%
Charcandrick West, K.C.29610.34%
Thomas Rawls, Sea.27810.36%
Theo Riddick, Det.26810.37%
Isaiah Crowell, Clev.44220.45%
Matt Asiata, Minn.20210.50%
T.J. Yeldon, Jac.39820.50%
Lamar Miller, Mia-Hou54030.56%
Darren Sproles, Phil.34120.59%
Matt Forte, Chi-NYJ51030.59%
Giovani Bernard, Cin.33420.60%
Jeremy Hill, Cin.48130.62%
LeGarrette Blount, N.E.47730.63%
Devonta Freeman, Atl.61940.65%
C.J. Anderson, Den.30320.66%
Rashad Jennings, NYG44030.68%
Justin Forsett, 3 tms28920.69%
Jordan Howard, Chi.28120.71%
Jeremy Langford, Chi.25120.80%
LeVeon Bell, Pitt.47340.85%
Mark Ingram, N.O.46740.86%
DeMarco Murray, Phi-Ten58350.86%
Christine Michael, 3 tms23020.87%
Todd Gurley, Rams57150.88%
Chris Johnson, Ariz.22720.88%
Shaun Draughn, 2 tms21320.94%
LeSean McCoy, Buff.51950.96%
Darren McFadden, Dall.30830.97%
Bilal Powell, NYJ30730.98%
Frank Gore, Ind.59561.01%
Ronnie Hillman, 2 tms27931.08%
Latavius Murray, Oak.53561.12%
DeAngelo Williams, Pitt.35641.12%
Jay Ajayi, Mia.34541.16%
Spencer Ware, K.C.32641.23%
Jonathan Stewart, Car.48461.24%
Doug Martin, T.B.47961.25%
Charles Sims, T.B.23331.29%
Alfred Blue, Hou.31041.29%
Terrance West, Ten-Bal29341.37%
Ezekiel Elliott, Dall.35451.41%
Eddie Lacy, G.B.28241.42%
Melvin Gordon, S.D.51281.56%
David Johnson, Ariz.55691.62%
Carlos Hyde, S.F.37061.62%
Tevin Coleman, Atl.23841.68%
Chris Thompson, Wash.20741.93%
Devontae Booker, Den.20541.95%
Adrian Peterson, Minn.39782.02%
Ryan Mathews, Phil.29562.03%
Chris Ivory, NYJ-Jac.41492.17%
Ameer Abdullah, Det.22852.19%
James Starks, G.B.27362.20%
Matt Jones, Wash.27082.96%

--Andy Richardson

5 Reader Comments:

James Costello

Portland, ME
2017-03-26T14:35:35Z
Andy, do veteran athletes ever do workouts for teams? Will a potential suitor actually time him running the 40yd. dash?

ANDY RICHARDSON

Port Chester, NY
2017-03-26T16:36:39Z
When you hear about teams bringing in a bunch of veteran players for tryouts they definitely workouts. In the case of someone like Peterson I think they just have a team doctor check him out. No doubt he has lost a step but I suspect contract and injury potential are bigger obstacles to an offer than declining skills. I'm sure Peterson still has pretty decent speed when fully healthy.

DAVID DIGREGORIO

Norristown, PA
2017-03-26T19:31:28Z
AP is high risk, high reward, on steroids.

Andrew Paterson

Ferndale, WA
2017-03-26T22:20:12Z
Seems like Peterson will end up signing for a bad team that's trying to drum up excitement and ticket sales with their fan base, not with any expectation of seriously improving the team.

Vin Kmetz

2017-03-27T19:12:04Z
Fantasy attention conveys the hard lessons of "NFL shelf life," but in this case the rub is that AP has got six hard pieces working against him: a). the subject of this article, fumbles; b). his age and matching injury profile; c). his bad press from conduct suspension d). his camp's $alary-$peak too early in the process; e). the promise of a better than usual RB class in the first 60; f). the fact that few teams run a system from an one I-back set--he has rarely been effective in a shotgun formation, and less effective in a fullback set. The paper natural for him is Oakland (the Lynch buzz is a sideshow), the interesting destination is Cleveland, but you know what - he'll probably wind up on the Patriots in the LeGarette Blount role - LOL.
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