Happy Black Friday. One of the reasons I avoid the crowds is because of the over abundance of mirth, goodwill, and cheer that accompanies Black Friday. Not sure how much activity we'll see around here, so consider this your defacto Friday open thread to talk about AP, what we're linking to, and any NFL and/or college football stuff you might want to discuss.
But with the end of Thanksgiving, we turn the page and look down the road towards the last six games on the Vikings schedule. This week, they travel to Atlanta, and the one question that surrounds the Vikings is wheter or not Adrian Peterson will play.
I have two points of view on this: as a diehard Vikings fan, and as a fantasy football owner that has AP on my team. From a diehard Vikings fan perspective, I am in the 'what's the point' camp. He's not 100% healthy, the Vikings are a longshot to beat the Falcons even with AP in the lineup, and our beloved Purple isn't jockeying for playoff position. The safe course of action seems to be to sit him this week or however long it takes to get him to 100%, and play him when he's healed.
On the OTHER hand...
My other starting running back is Fred Jackson, who just went on IR this week with a broken leg. So in a matter of a couple hours on Sunday I went from one of the best fantasy football teams in my league to a bona-fide dumpster fire. I fell to fourth place in my 10 team league, and I am barely hanging on to a playoff spot. My stable of running backs went from AP, Jackson, and Michael Turner to Turner, Toby Gerhart, and DeAngelo Williams.
Obviously, the Vikings need to rest AP. As of this post, he was listed as 'doubtful' on the Vikings injury report, and a high ankle sprain is a bubba to work around after one week, especially as a RB in the NFL. While no one is expecting AP to play, the one guy who knows better than anyone...that would be Adrian Peterson himself...says to not count him out. From The Godfather, Sid Hartman, in his most recent tome, quoting AP himself:
"[It's] just my mentality. I'm always going to come out and see what I can do.
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier will have final say, but is sounds like AP wants to give it a shot. I want a healthy AP, so I'd be surprised to see him this week. But I won't be surprised if he's starting next week.
So, what else is going on around Vikings World?
Leslie Frazier tried to cheer up Christian Ponder after the loss to the Raiders last week.
AP, Visanthe Shiancoe, and Kyle Rudolph all missed practice on Thanksgiving. Not a game, not a game, not a game...we talkin' 'bout practice, man.
Is E.J. Henderson awesome? E.J. Henderson is awesome.
And Asher Allen is still terrible, regardless of the puff piece that Jeremy Fowler wrote about him.
Finally, Tom Pelissero over at 1500 ESPN has a must read about possible candidates for contract extensions and how that will affect the salary cap.
Although it's not Vikes specific, it is NFC North related. Until yesterday, I didn't consider Ndamukong Suh a dirty player. Yeah, that ship has pretty much sailed. He's a dirty player. Kevin Seifert really breaks it down well, as always.
So, should AP play or not? I'll let you make the call.