2008 Fantasy Football Player Profile-Adrian Peterson

RB Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

2007 Stats: 1341 rushing yards, 268 receiving yards, 13 total TDs
Projected 2008 Stats: 1855 rushing yards, 402 receiving yards, 20 total TDs
Projected Fantasy Round: 1st Round
Running backs to be picked ahead of Adrian Peterson: LaDainian Tomlinson

Fantasy Outlook:

Why you should draft Adrian Peterson: Last season, Peterson had six games where he reached triple figures in rushing yards, including twice when he amassed over 200 rushing yards.  He also had four games where he had multiple scores, and he averaged over 95 yards per game. 

Why you may want to stay away from drafting Adrian Peterson: Peterson is clearly going to be highly coveted by fantasy owners, but he does show signs of being a very hot and cold player.  Some weeks he will put up NFL record performances, but there will likely be other games where he struggles immensely. The reason he could be held in check some weeks is because opposing defenses are going to load the box to force the Vikings to have to pass to beat them.  In fact, Peterson was limited to under 36 rushing yards in three out of his last four games in 2007.

Bottom Line: Peterson wants to rush for 2000 yards in 2008, and even if he doesn’t reach that plateau, he still figures to be amongst the upper echelon running backs. In fact, Tomlinson may be forced to pass the torch of being the top fantasy running back to Peterson in 2008.