In August, the Redskins signed Adrian Peterson to a one-year deal after a rash of injuries to their backfield. Now, Peterson is hoping to continue that arrangement into 2019 and the Redskins also have some interest in a new deal, ESPN.com’s John Keim writes. 
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After Week 13, Peterson ranks eighth in the NFL with 856 rushing yards, which isn’t too shabby for a 33-year-old running back. He was actually fifth in the NFL after eight weeks, but his yards per carry average has dipped in recent weeks thanks to a banged up Redskins’ offensive line and a shoulder injury of his own.
All of these factors make it difficult to accurately assess Peterson’s performance. Last night, the Redskins got a glimpse of prime Peterson when he rattled off a 90-yard touchdown run in the second quarter against the Eagles. But, at the same time, he averaged just one yard on his other eight carries. You read that right – on a night where Peterson became the oldest player to rattle off a 90-yard touchdown run, he also failed to reach 100 yards overall.
The Redskins are also expecting Derrius Guice to return healthy in 2019 and still have pass-catching specialist Chris Thompson under contract, so there’s not a real clear need for Peterson. Peterson, in theory, could split time with Guice, but he didn’t take kindly to his limited role in New Orleans and it’s not clear if he’ll be willing to average single-digit carries in 2019.
For what it’s worth, he has the support of at least one teammate.
“You look at Guice and he’s one of those backs you could be talking about for a long time,” said Redskins left tackle Trent Williams. “He could benefit tremendously from Adrian. With Adrian showing how much he has left in the tank, I don’t know if he’d want to come back and waste away his final seasons as a mentor when he could be adding to his legacy somewhere. He could still be the guy.”
Double his pay to mentor the new guy.
Guice is fragile. A season with half-reps would do Guice a world of good in getting back up to truly full strength. Moreover, as good as Peterson has been this year, when he’s played as the bell cow he tires in the last third of the game. Peterson should be splitting reps and hitting at full strength all game. There’s plenty of space for two backs in the Washington system.
Peterson has played well enough on screens and as a receiver and blocker to be a very good (if not absolutely top tier) third down back. Apart from technical skills, Peterson has been a field leader, bringing some fire and competitive spirit to a fairly flat group (Doctson and Reed are talented, but play very zen).
I’d love to see Peterson back in Washington. The Redskins would be foolish to let him go.
90 yard TD run, and still doesn’t top 100 yards
An extra 10 yards wouldn’t have influenced the outcome anyway.
Looks like the Redskins won’t be meeting the Bears in the playoffs which is good news from our perspective since AP had some monster games against us during his career.