Vikings Tell Adrian Peterson They Won't Release Him

The situation with running back Adrian Peterson continues on for the Minnesota Vikings, but it appears that the team has taken one potential option off of the table.

According to Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com, Peterson's agent, Ben Dogra, has said that the Vikings have informed him that they will not just cut his client outright. That leaves the two options that we've mainly discussed thus far. . .either keep him and force him to play out his contract or trade him for the best offer the team can get.

Granted, this isn't earth-shattering news on this front, but as it comes directly from Peterson's camp, it's a fairly significant development. Releasing Peterson would mean that the team would wind up getting absolutely nothing for him, not even in the form of compensatory picks (as the compensatory pick formula doesn't account for players that have been released, only those that have played out their contracts). Regardless of how you feel about the situation, the worst case scenario for the team would be to lose Peterson for nothing.

With the option of a release off the table and the number of potential destinations for Peterson to be traded to dwindling rapidly, it's looking more and more likely that Peterson is going to end up staying in Minnesota for at least the 2015 season.