Adrian Peterson Calls Chris Johnson, Gives Encouragement

I would have traded him. He’s small and relies on speed and the big play. He loses a step and he’ll get hit a lot more, not sure he’s built to take that like some other backs. Plus Ringer just looks like the better back

Also tend to take their own toll. Check the history of the 2,000 yard club and you’ll see not many were very great after their amazing seasons. Terrel Davis comes to mind, Broncos ran him straight into the ground. Jamal Lewis for the Ravens, also. Barry Sanders retired too soon to see if he would keep up his pace, but you gotta assume he felt the mileage building..Much like our own Robert Smith after his biggest season.

Chris Johnson is a young guy and it’s too soon to tell if he’ll flame out (like he currently is on track to) or if he can get back into shape and dominate games like he has in the past. I think he’ll come around near the end of the season, and he’ll have a chip on his shoulder entering into next season, especially after hearing all of the talking heads throw him under the bus because he held out. I don’t believe he should have, but it is what is and he can’t change it now. He did out-perform his old contract, but holding out is rarely a good idea, especially for so long.

Symbiotic… you’ll have to look that up unless you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express like I did last night.

My opinion is the two of them owe what they have to each other.
They feed on each others success and it makes sense that AP understands that.

I think AP is the better of the two. If I were going to build a team as they say -I would take AP over CJ. However in the case of money, CJ’s holdout was instrumental in him getting the money he deserved and the team would have never given him as much as they did if he hadn’t held out. Like wise AP received a deal based on the deal that CJ got so AP would have never received what he deserved if not for CJ holding out.

Also, I think their little rivalry actually helps drive their internal competition to make them better. I think the hold out hurt CJ in the short term but the next year will tell. His mouth definitely hurts him while AP is nothing but class.

However, the NFL deals are one way deals with the players on the not protected side – hence AP’s little gaff about slavery in the NFL. If CJ or AP had come back their final year and blown out their knee, neither would be getting what they are now. NFL can cut you for the good of the team while the player is locked in for the duration a la Carson Palmer.

I remember the way the Vikings (mostly Dennis Green) treated one of my favorite players, Terry Allen. One of the only players to come back from two knee surgeries and manage his salary to help the team. What do they do? They dump him off to Washington and say “thanks for the sacrifice bud”

Still, at the end of the day the guy that gets all the respect in the world here is AP. I am glad to see it work out for him… now if we can just get him a winning season again :(

If Johnson was scheduled to get the money Peterson was slated to get this year (before resigning) I doubt he’d have held out. As it was, he was seen as 1A of RBs, and wasn’t even going to make 1 million this season. He deserved a raise.