Adrian Peterson May Find More Fuel in Superstar Tank with Move to the Saints
In order to fully understand why so many in football now believe that Adrian Peterson‘s career is about to have a demonstrative resurgence in New Orleans, you first have to understand what the NFL thinks of Saints coach Sean Payton.
There is a belief among many coaches and team executives in the sport that Payton is the best play-caller in football today and one of the best to ever do it. He’s seen by some coaches as an offensive genius in the mold of Bill Walsh or Joe Gibbs. Yes, that good.
So when Peterson agreed to join the Saints this week, as first reported by ESPN’s Josina Anderson, there was a sense around the NFL that Payton could salvage Peterson’s last days from devolving into an embarrassment.
Josina Anderson
Adrian Peterson tells me he plans to sign with the #Saints on a 2 yr deal, effectively a (1 + 1op) term worth a base value of $7M. (Cont.)
In fact, it may be the opposite. It’s thought by a variety of team officials that Peterson can, in some ways, become the explosive weapon he long was in Minnesota again.
That isn’t what many front office executives and assistant coaches were saying recently, which led me to conclude Peterson was done.
But Peterson’s move to the Saints has changed this line of thinking, convincing the same men who once declared Peterson an aged former star to tell me early Tuesday morning that only the Patriots or Saints made sense for him.
“Adrian Peterson is going to scare the league one more time,” an NFC assistant coach said. “Sean will turn him back into the terror he once was.”
One general manager put it even more succinctly: “This is the type of move that could put the Saints into the playoffs and beyond.”
Are people…
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