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When reports surfaced early last year that Adrian Peterson had reached out to Jerry Jones and made him aware of his desire to end his career with the Dallas Cowboys, everyone in the state of Texas almost lost their minds over the prospect of it. They all truly believed that Peterson was the missing piece to the Cowboys returning to and winning the Super Bowl. And when he was suspended for the year because of the child abuse allegations that were brought against him, it just added fuel to the fire as everyone in the league thought the Minnesota Vikings would release him and minimize the PR hit.
But as it turned out, while the Vikings did distance themselves from Peterson, they never did release him. After seeing how mightily their running game struggled last season without him, they realized just how important he was to their team and to their organization’s chances of being successful. But Cowboys Nation still believed that a trade had to be in the works, especially when Jerry Jones decided to let the league’s leading rusher in DeMarco Murray leave in free agency to the Philadelphia Eagles.
It didn’t matter that he signed Darren McFadden to be his replacement, a player he has wanted on this team ever since he entered the league in 2008. Fans still believed that the Cowboys were just trying to find a way to clear up enough cap space to sign Peterson and have one of the most dynamic backfields the league has ever seen.
Well, I have some sobering news for Cowboys fans everywhere; it’s finally time to let that dream go!
Just look at the facts. When the team signed Greg Hardy to a one-year deal that totaled $11.3 million, that effectively ended any chance of them signing Peterson; there simply isn’t enough cap space to pull it off. In theory they could still rework a few contracts to make it possible, but they would have to give up some pretty high draft picks to acquire him; and while he is a one of a kind player, he is not worth mortgaging the future for.
This is why Stephen Jones came out before the draft and said that he didn’t envision a scenario where he would trade draft picks to acquire one player. So this notion of trading a first-round pick for a running back who just turned 30 is ridiculous. Why the Cowboys would trade the possibility of getting someone who can contribute to the team for the next 8-10 years for a player who might only provide one to two years at best is beyond anyone’s reasonable thinking. Jerry may be doing all of the talking, but you can rest assured that Stephen is the one who is making all of the decisions at this point.
Trading for Peterson does not guarantee a Super Bowl like most fans believe it would, and if you have been paying attention to how the Cowboys have been running the team lately, you will see that gone are the days of them picking up or holding on to players who are at the end of their careers. And you saw the immediate benefits of that last year when they made a deep run in the playoffs.
So my advice to Cowboys fans everywhere is to ignore all of the rumors of Peterson joining the Cowboys and to put their focus on McFadden and company, because that’s who will be taking the field against the New York Giants this September.
Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.
