The Minnesota Vikings likely will not be trading franchise running back Adrian Peterson before the trade deadline in the NFL on Tuesday, but that hasn't stopped some of the reports from coming out with the Vikes being terrible and some teams that have been mentioned as possibilities are the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants.
Most of these rumors have been just that and while it is very unlikely that Peterson will get traded, why not have some fun with it and take a look at what potentially could happen. Peterson is obviously one of the best players in the NFL and while it would be surprising to see someone who rushed for 2,000 yards a year ago to get traded, crazier things have happened. If a team wants to get their hands on Peterson they likely will have to give up two first round picks and while not too many teams can afford to give that up, someone could be crazy enough to do it, even someone like Jerry Jones. The Cowboys lost an emotional game on Sunday in dramatic fashion right at the end with the Matthew Stafford fake spike sneak touchdown and Jones could make an emotional decision to try and keep things right in the NFC East race.
The Cowboys are ranked 23rd in the league in rushing yards and have been disappointed with the play and performance of DeMarco Murray, making it possible a deal could go down. Bill Barnwell did an amazing breakdown on Grantland.com about how the Cowboys have put themselves in a tough financial situation and how they have disposed of promising running backs over the years, so anyone thinking that it is impossible for the Cowboys to ditch Murray so quickly is mistaken, although that doesn't mean they will do the same thing again. The team ranks 24th in the league in rushing yards per game with less than 90 this season and with Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar also on the depth chart, Jerry could be looking for an upgrade.
Despite being the only offensive threat for the Vikings, Peterson has still had a solid season with over 500 yards rushing and five touchdowns and any team in the league would be happy to have him, but it likely will not be going down. Murray was off to a good start before getting injured and he has 428 yards on the ground this season with three touchdowns and he missed this past week's game as the Cowboys lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Lions.
The Cowboys had the lead and after Matthew Stafford drove the Lions down the field with a great pass to Calvin Johnson, he took the team to the line of scrimmage like he was going to spike the ball and instead he just dove into the endzone, stunning the Cowboys with under 15 seconds left. The team had no real chance to win back the game and the drive was quick and impressive and now the Cowboys are still the leaders in the NFC East, but it's within reach for everyone and the upcoming schedule isn't getting any easier with the Saints coming on the road. Making the Peterson trade even funnier is the fact that the Cowboys play the Vikings next week. That would be too weird to actually happen, so there's no way it will.
