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"Coach, you better tell those defenders to buckle up."
Those there would be the words spoken by Adrian Peterson to RB coach James Saxon today after the team decided it was time for AP to get hit again in practice. Incidentally, those are also the words of many a defensive player's nightmares.
Yup, AP has taken the next critical step in his road to Week One, and apparently all went well. Now, it is worth mentioning that "contact" here is defined as upper-body only, with no taking Peterson to the ground; however, it's equally worth noting that those are the rules for basically EVERY running back in the NFL during practice, regardless of injuries and all. Considering RBs take some of the heaviest beatings of any NFL position, it only makes sense that you tend to keep things on the 'lighter' side in practice.
Again, all seems to have gone well with the contact today, with it sounding like not only AP getting thumped, but AP doing the thumping as well... which is of course the AP we all know and love. The real 'test', if you will, comes tomorrow when the team evaluates how Peterson is doing/ feeling, to make sure that his knee doesn't react poorly to the stress. I'm randomly guessing it won't, and that, in some form or another, we will see All Day unleashed come Jacksonville.