The Minnesota Vikings have changed their minds and placed RB Adrian Peterson on the exempt list until his legal case is resolved and now fantasy football owners are scrambling to pick up Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon as free agents since they are next in line on the depth chart and all this comes after Peterson was indicted and arrested on child abuse charges for hitting his son.
According to ESPN.com, the Vikings previously reinstated Peterson after deactivated him last week for the loss against the Patriots, but they changed their minds after public pressure and other outside comments. The team was fine to have Peterson in the lineup yesterday, but now they feel differently and he will be barred from all team activities until the legal matter is resolved and that could take some time.
Peterson now will have to wait until his first court date since the news came out and that will be in October, while a trial may not happen for months. Peterson is considered to be one of the best running backs in NFL history and for fantasy football owners, he is basically the centerpiece of their teams. The Vikings now have to deal with his absence and they have a tough matchup with the New Orleans Saints after losing to the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Peterson had 21 carries for 75 yards with two catches for 18 yards in the opening win over the Rams and now that will be his last game for quite a while. Peterson came into the season after another strong year and now Asiata will take over as the starter. Peterson had over 1200 yards last season with 10 touchdowns and he has scored in double digits every year of his career and he has been over 1000 yards in all but one of those and that was due to an injury. Last season Peterson missed two games and he still ended up with 1266 yards and now he will be out for the Vikings.
Asiata now will take over and while he is no Adrian Peterson, fantasy football owners need some type of replacement and now he will be the feature back. Last week in place of AP, Asiata had 36 yards on 13 carries and also had five catches for 48 yards and a touchdown and now he will be looked at to take over as the main back. McKinnon is untested and that means Asiata will have even more responsibilities, as AP is a solid run blocker and strong receiver out of the backfield. Last season Asiata rushed the ball 44 times and had 166 yards with three touchdowns.
Asiata is a strong start in most leagues and he is a better option than McKinnon, as he had only three rushes for eight yards in the first two games this season. McKinnon obviously will get more chances now, but he is a young player and the team clearly likes Asiata and now those two will be splitting carries moving forward with Peterson on the sidelines. Peterson is one of the best players in the league and whether they bowed to public pressure or not, the Vikings needed to make a move.