Adrian Peterson has always been an exception to rules, which is why it should surprise nobody that he’s putting together an MVP-caliber season at an age at which most players at his position have declined sharply.
Running backs just aren’t supposed to have much left at 30, and yet Peterson leads the NFL in rushing by a 126-yard margin. He also leads the league with 1,347 yards from scrimmage and he ranks second to only Devonta Freeman of the Falcons with eight rushing touchdowns.
Peterson is on pace to rush for 1,693 yards, which would be the third-highest total of his career and the third-highest total of all time among backs beyond their 30th birthday.
Tiki Barber holds the record there, having rushed for 1,860 yards as a 30-year old in 2005. Barber had 11 touchdowns that year, but Peterson is on pace to score 12 times.
And when you look at the trajectory Peterson’s riding, it’s fair to wonder if he might be able to actually surpass Barber’s mark. The Viking has rushed for more than 100 yards in four of his last five games, hitting the 125-yard mark in three of those affairs. If he averages the same yards-per-game total over the next five games that he mustered in the last five, he’ll wind up with 1,798 yards. That’s at least within range of Barber’s incredible mark.
And who knows, if Peterson can put together a monster game or two, he might even end up making another run at 2,000 yards. It’s obviously far-fetched, but he’d have to average 167.2 rush yards per game between now and the end of the season.
Regardless of what happens over the final five weeks of 2015, Peterson has solidified his Hall of Fame legacy with an incredible bounce-back season at an age that is usually considered a death knell for NFL backs.
