5 free agents Vikings can sign to replace Adrian Peterson
By John Buhler
Adrian Peterson suffered a knee injury on Sunday Night Football. Here are five replacements the Minnesota Vikings can look to sign if Peterson is out.
It looks like the Minnesota Vikings suffered another devastating blow to their offense on Sunday night. Superstar running back Adrian Peterson had to leave the game with a knee injury in the Vikings’ 17-14 Week 2 victory over the rival Green Bay Packers.
Should Peterson miss significant time, this could be a tough injury for the Vikings to overcome on their quest to Super Bowl LI in Houston. Minnesota already has had to replace franchise quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with former No. 1 overall pick of the St. Louis Rams Sam Bradford. Bradford will be the guy going forward for the Vikings, playing well in Week 2 for Minnesota.
Replacing Bridgewater was difficult, but the Vikings seem to have made a wise short-term investment in Bradford. If Bridgewater is out until 2018, Bradford looks more than capable of quarterbacking the Vikings possibly through next season.
That being said, filling the void left by Peterson’s injury is almost impossible. The Vikings do have two other serviceable running backs in Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon to lessen the blow. If Minnesota needs to hit the free agency market, here are five players the Vikings could target to help replace Peterson’s productivity.
5. Marion Grice
To be fair, there are not a lot of great, NFL-caliber running backs available on the free agency market entering Week 3. One guy that hasn’t played very much but could be a fit in Minnesota is former Arizona Cardinals running back Marion Grice.
Grice has been on three NFL teams (Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, Detroit Lions) since being drafted out of Arizona State in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He’s only played in 10 NFL games once, for the 2014 Cardinals, and had 15 carries for 41 yards and a touchdown, but Grice could be a good schematic fit with the Vikings.
Two of the teams in the NFL best known for their vertical offenses are the Cardinals and Vikings. Both teams run a ton of five and seven-step drops in their passing attack. Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner’s scheme wouldn’t be a vast departure from what Grice played in under Bruce Arians in Glendale.
Signing Grice would mean the Vikings could use Asiata as the bell-cow back and let McKinnon emerge as the primary change of pace back. Grice might need some time to get into football shape, but he could be a decent emergency back for the Vikings to bring into the fold after the Peterson injury.