Packers Proven Right on Peterson Decision

Tuesday afternoon, news came out that Adrian Peterson had been traded to the Arizona Cardinals, and this is of interest to Packers fans and people who write and talk about the Packers like me because of what we went through this offseason.

Almost every day this offseason, it seemed like there was some sort of new “Adrian Peterson is coming to the Packers” sort of rumors. Should the Packers take a look at Adrian Peterson?  Would he want to come here even if he had the opportunity? Stuff like that.

I’ll admit, we contributed to that a little bit, because we cover the rumors when they’re out there. I think that’s worth talking about because it would have been an interesting situation if Peterson had come to the Packers. Apparently, at one point they were even considering bringing him in for a visit. Pro Football Talk reported that, but we're glad the Packers didn’t.

Now Peterson has managed to somehow con two franchises into devoting resources to him. First the Saints, who rely pretty heavily on running backs who can catch the ball and pass block. Peterson didn't do any of those things well at any point in his career and there's really no reason to expect that he could do it now, well into his thirties. On top of that, he didn't even run the ball particularly well when he was in New Orleans.

So they traded him, but not before they spent nearly $2.8 million to get him. That includes a two and a half million dollar signing bonus and almost three hundred thousand dollars in salary so far this season.

The Cardinals, meanwhile are decidedly not one Adrian Peterson away from becoming a contender. Not in the NFC West, and not in the NFC as a whole. They’re third in the NFC West and probably should be a lot more concerned about Carson Palmer completing less than sixty percent of his passes so far this season than they are with their running game. They're giving up at least one draft pick to get Peterson for some reason.

I don't know how serious the Packers’ interest in Peterson ever was, but let's hope it wasn't very much, because spending three million dollars for five games of an old running back is the sort of move that keeps franchises like the Saints outside the playoffs and looking in. The same goes for throwing draft picks at a guy you already passed on once.

The Packers were absolutely right to stand pat with Ty Montgomery and their future rookie running backs. I think the emergence of Aaron Jones has proved them right just as much as any ineffectiveness we've seen from Adrian Peterson. It was a good move by the Packers to pass on Peterson.

This post was adapted from this week's episode of Blue 58. For more episodes, subscribe on iTunes.