Adrian Peterson's Power, Vision on Full Display for Lions

When the Detroit Lions signed 35-year-old Adrian Peterson, many wondered how much of an impact the future Hall of Famer would provide.

Well, one of the few bright spots in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears was the semblance of a running game -- mostly due to Peterson.

On just 14 carries in his debut in Honolulu Blue, the 13th-year veteran rushed for 93 yards.

His power, vision and even stop-and-start ability were on full display.

Overall, it was an impressive first impression to say the least.

Interestingly enough, Peterson passing the eye test can be corroborated with some fancy technology.

New this year, NFL Next Gen Stats has a metric used to measure how many yards a running back is expected to gain on each rush.

Using many different factors based on the ball carrier’s relative location, his speed and the direction of the blockers and defenders, Next Gen Stats created an equation on how many yards the running back should amass.

For all 30 running backs with at least 10 rushing attempts in the first week of the season, Peterson led the NFL in “Rushing Yards Over Expected per Attempt” -- which is the difference between actual rushing yards and expected rushing yards per rush attempt.

With 2.47 yards more than expected per rush, Peterson was able to create yards for himself.

He also had five rushes of 10 or more yards in Week 1.

Adrian Peterson had 5 rushes of 10+ yards in week 1, which was the most in the #NFL pic.twitter.com/uy5FWDT3VX
— NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) September 15, 2020

It’s rather amazing how Peterson continues to find success in the NFL at a position that is such an ephemeral one.

Even with two recent second-round running backs on the roster, Peterson appears to be the Lions' best pure rusher at the moment, and deserves to be the leading early-down back at this time.

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