Jameis Winston open to having Adrian Peterson on Buccaneers
By Conor Myles
Sounds like the Buccaneers franchise quarterback is nudging the team in Adrian Peterson’s direction.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could perhaps be in the running back market. The team’s workhorse back, Doug Martin, will be suspended for the first three games of the 2017 season for violating the NFL’s PED policy and has had issues with health throughout his career.
When Adrian Peterson was ready to move on from the Minnesota Vikings, the Buccaneers were on his list of desired destinations.
Peterson worked out with the team’s young star quarterback Jameis Winston this offseason and the two seemed to have hit it off. In fact, Winston declared his thoughts about playing with Peterson to ESPN.
"“Absolutely,” Winston said when asked about Peterson joining him in the Buccaneers backfield. “I don’t know of anyone that wouldn’t. But that’s out of my league. I can only talk about what I learned from him and how he helped me this offseason.”"
Martin’s long-term future with the Buccaneers is unclear, to say at the least. The running back just finished up a stint in a drug rehabilitation program and showed up for the team’s start to their offseason team activities, which could be a huge indication that they wish to keep the 28-year old running back.
Still, given Martin’s injury history, adding Peterson to share the workload with him wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Peterson has reportedly met with the Seattle Seahawks, the New England Patriots and most recently the New Orleans Saints this offseason, but he isn’t expected to sign with a team prior to the draft barring any significant changes.
The Buccaneers have met with some top running back prospects in the 2017 NFL Draft as well, most notably Dalvin Cook and Joe Mixon, but if they’re unable to land a running back in the draft, Peterson wouldn’t be a bad alternative either.
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We’ll see if Winston pining for Peterson turns into anything, but right now the future Hall of Fame running back remains unsigned.