In the wake of Adrian Peterson‘s new deal with the Vikings yesterday, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports took an in-depth look at Peterson’s offseason. According to Robinson, before the Vikings running back rejoined the team and got his new contract, he thought at length about a trade, retirement, and even the possibility of returning to his sprinting roots and making a run at the 2016 Olympics. That last idea may have been more of a dream than a plausible alternative, but it’s a moot point now, as Peterson ultimately decided to return to the Vikings for at least the 2015 season.
Of course, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman ensured that returning to Minnesota was the most viable solution for Peterson, with sources telling Robinson that Spielman “never wavered” on his stance to hang on to the former MVP. While Spielman’s position may have been a result of a lack of legit trade offers for Peterson, Robinson says that some inside the franchise believe that even a massive offer wouldn’t have made the GM change his mind.
Let’s check in on a few more items from out of the NFL’s two North divisions….
- Paul Dehner Jr. of The Cincinnati Enquirer (on Twitter) feels that the Bengals failed to address their tight end depth this offseason. While Tyler Kroft could be capable of producing in 2015, it’s hard to count on a rookie to contribute right out of the gate. The lack of depth for the Bengals puts added pressure of Tyler Eifert to give the Bengals a full, healthy season, something he hasn’t been able to do so far, Dehner tweets.
- Now that Stephen Gostkowski has received a long-term deal from the Patriots, it should just be a matter of time before the Ravens and Justin Tucker work out a similar deal, writes Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll happen soon though, as Hensley observes, noting that the franchise tag is a possibility for the Baltimore kicker in 2016, if he has yet to sign an extension by March.
- The Packers opened up their own books this week and that info revealed that NFL teams each received $226.4MM from the NFL as part of revenue sharing from the 2014 fiscal year, Darren Rovell of ESPN.com writes. The total surpassed $7.2 billion and comes mostly from the league’s television deals.
- Earlier today, we continued our Offseason in Review series with an examination of the Bears‘ moves over the last few months.
Zach Links contributed to this post.