Arizona Cardinals: Adrian Peterson is not the answer

The Arizona Cardinals are reportedly trading for New Orleans Saints running back Adrian Peterson on Tuesday

You can’t fault the Arizona Cardinals for at least trying. However this move, while it makes sense to some, doesn’t necessarily fix the running woes of the the team.

Adrian Peterson has had a nice career to say the least. After spending all of his career with the Minnesota Vikings he moved on to the New Orleans Saints this year.

From week one, it appeared Peterson was not happy with his role. He was caught on the sidelines upset with his limited role in their Monday Night Football loss to the Vikings on September 11th.

The Cardinals running challenges have been well documented. The loss of running back David Johnson in week one was a huge loss. The team went out and re-signed Chris Johnson.

Since then, the offensive line has not performed well. They’ve had injuries. Unless they plan on getting a couple of guys back soon, the run game doesn’t appear to be improving anytime soon.

Last week the Cardinals ran 14 times for 31-yards. Of those 31-yards, 14 of them came on a Wildcat play to receiver J.J. Nelson.

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The move to get Peterson though doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint. First, while Peterson would certainly be the starter for now, don’t forget Johnson is returning in November or December.

Are they going to discard Peterson once Johnson returns? We know he doesn’t like to play second fiddle. While Peterson may be getting up in age at 32, even that really isn’t a factor.

This just doesn’t seem like a fit for Peterson. It may be for the Cardinals for the time being but don’t expect Peterson to come in and start running for 100+ per game. With this line, it just isn’t going to happen.

We’ll see how it plays out. However please don’t be too disappointed when it doesn’t work out for either party.

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