Photo - Aj Mansour (KFAN)
By: Aj Mansour | KFAN.com
@AjMansourKFAN
Eden Prairie, MN - Amidst the reports that surfaced Monday afternoon saying that the Vikings were planning to withhold Adrian Peterson from seeing any live action during the preseason, Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier took to the podium Tuesday afternoon and confirmed the rumors.
"It's a fact," Frazier said. "We're going to hold [Adrian] out of these preseason games."
Frazier, who initially told KFAN that he planned on getting Adrian action during the preseason, said that there were no setbacks with Peterson's rehabilitation but that the Vikings would like more time with him in practice before throwing him into the violent live-action that is the NFL.
"It's the right thing to do," Frazier added. "There are a few more things we'd like to be able to do in a controlled setting rather than a game setting."
Up until today, Adrian has ambitiously led the charge to getting back onto the field with his teammates during the preseason. During Training Camp, Coach Frazier repeatedly said that Adrian was lobbying for the coaches and trainers to clear him to return to practice with his teammates. As 'part of the process,' Peterson was granted his wish and he returned to the field for the first time in full pads exactly one week ago.
Today, Frazier explained that he saw a more mature, more patient side of Adrian when the team informed Adrian that he would in fact not see game time in the Vikings' final preseason games.
"It was a decision that we all made," Frazier said Tuesday. "We talked to him about it and for the first time in our conversations he kind of seemed as if he understood. He even used the word 'patience' and I was like, 'Wow, finally it's clicking!' He's on board, everybody is onboard."
Despite their initial hopes to have him ready for week one, the coaches and trainers still desire to see more from Peterson before putting him into live-game action. Frazier said that Peterson carried the ball 18 times in Monday's practice and showed no residual damage upon reporting this morning but they want to see how he reacts when he is hit, how he reacts when bodies are falling in front of him and if he can plant like the Adrian of old.
"There's going to be a point where we'll want to bang him up a little bit [in practice]," Frazier added. "I don't know if we'll take him to the ground but we definitely have talked about just letting him feel a little shock to see how he responds. We're going to do some things in practice to see how he responds to a hit and then go from there."
"Until you play in a game, practice is still practice and a game is totally different. There's no way I could stand here today and tell you that we are going to simulate game speed in practice."
While the uncertainty surrounding today's setback may cause Peterson's Fantasy Football value to drop significantly, the Vikings are not ruling him out from playing in the home opener against the Jaguars on September 9th.
As part of the progression that makes up Peterson's rehabilitation, the Vikings will continue to widen the load they are giving Peterson and plan to insert full contact drills into Peterson's repertoire "in advance of Jacksonville (September 9th)."
Peterson will meet with the media following this afternoon's practice at Winter Park in Eden Prairie.
Aj Mansour covers Minnesota Sports for KFAN.com. Feel free to leave comments and questions regarding this post in the space provided below. For Vikings' updates and breaking Vikings' news, follow Aj on Twitter. @AjMansourKFAN
