Adrian Peterson may be in line for more touches going forward than he saw in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings, but expectations need to be tempered for anyone who wants to see the Peterson of old.
New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton told Jane Slater of NFL Network Sunday that using Peterson the way he was used by the Vikings is something that was never discussed.
“I don’t think we’ve ever discussed featuring him like he was featured in Minnesota,” Payton said. “And yet, our hopes obviously are that we have more than fifty snaps like we did a week ago. It’s tough when you have eight possessions. I felt like two-thirds of the call sheet we didn’t even get to so we ended up in a hurry-up mode in the last part of the game. Hopefully we have that balance that we’re looking for and we’ll see how that goes.”
Peterson will undoubtedly have bigger weeks than the one he had last Monday, but Mark Ingram was very productive for the Saints a year ago. They’re not just going to abandon him, and they also aren’t going to ignore how impressive rookie pass-catching back Alvin Kamara has looked.
Even if Peterson thinks he can handle a massive workload at age 32, the Saints have always spread the ball around and used all of their weapons. His comments after Week 1 indicated he was frustrated with his role, and that’s understandable. However, Peterson should be more irritated that New Orleans was dominated by the Vikings. If he’s looking to pile up stats, he may have signed with the wrong team.
