Seattle Seahawks: Adding Adrian Peterson not a bad thing

The Seattle Seahawks are really thin at running back and to help fix that the team reportedly is signing veteran Adrian Peterson to the practice squad, per a tweet by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. People may not be fans of Peterson for a domestic issue he had a few years ago but Seattle made a football move to help fix the offense.

Of course, Adrian Peterson clearly isn’t the player he once was but he should still be able to help grind out some yards and be part of a rotation of running backs that includes Alex Collins and DeeJay Dallas. Peterson is now more of an inside runner and should help Seattle chew more clock.

At this point in the season, Seattle must do something to keep its offense on the field longer and rest its defense. Seattle’s defense is much more effective than the offense is, which says quite a lot because the defense isn’t that good either. But what needs to be gone are the games where Seattle keeps the ball for 20 minutes and the other team has it for 40.

Peterson doesn’t fix this by himself, obviously, but the Seahawks have lost so much at running back this year – Chris Carson is done for the year, Rashaad Penny hardly played, Travis Homer has recently been dealing with an issue – that Peterson will probably be Seattle’s second-best running back.

Seattle Seahawks add Adrian Peterson to the practice squad

If he averages something close to 4 yards a rush, that would be good enough. And if Peterson can get 8-10 carries a game that would be OK. Collins needs 10-15. The Seahawks simply have to run more. The passing of Russell Wilson isn’t working and Seattle has to try something different.

Peterson can catch some passes as well with 305 career receptions and an average of 8.1 yards a catch. He stays healthy and shouldn’t miss any games left in 2021. And he doesn’t turn the ball over much and had zero fumbles in 168 touches in 2020.

Peterson isn’t a long-term answer. He will probably only be in Seattle this season. But with six games left if Seattle has any chance of winning any of its remaining games they need to use a rotation of running backs and simply run more. Peterson can be a decent piece of the rotation.