Report: Vikings GM informs Adrian Peterson's agent the RB won't be cut
It’s still unknown if Adrian Peterson will be a member of the Minnesota Vikings for the 2015 season, but one thing now appears to be certain: if he’s not, it won’t be because he was cut. According to Tom Pelissero of USA Today, Vikings GM Rick Spielman informed Ben Dogra, Adrian Peterson’s agent, that the team will not release the star running back.
If the Vikings had cut Peterson, it would count $13 million against the team’s 2015 salary cap.
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Peterson was indicted in September for “reckless or negligent injury to a child” after disciplining his four-year-old son with a switch and was then suspended indefinitely by the NFL in November. That suspension was overturned at the end of February, clearing the way for Peterson to be reinstated.
Peterson recently spoke skeptically about returning to the Vikings, telling ESPN he is “still uneasy about a lot of things that took place within the organization.”
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At the NFL combine in February, Spielman spoke in complementary terms about Peterson, saying “Adrian Peterson is under contract with us. He’s a very unique football player. I’m sure Adrian is doing everything he can do off the field. He made a mistake, he admitted a mistake. I’m sure he’s doing everything he can to not only make himself better as a football player but also a better person off the field—and that’s the type of person Adrian is. He’s a suspended player right now and then we’ll see where it goes from there. But there’s no question, I don’t think any—and I’ve said this before—I don’t think any team in the NFL wouldn’t want an Adrian Peterson-caliber running back on their football team.”
Peterson, who turns 30 on March 21, was drafted by the Vikings in 2007, and has played his entire career there, winning the MVP award as recently as the 2012 season, and amassing a franchise-leading 10,190 rushing yards.
--Amy Parlapiano
