The Final Countdown: Peterson Eyes Passing All-Time Greats
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Barring an unforeseen injury or a surprising lack of productivity, this is about to be a milestone season for Adrian Peterson --- and not just because it's his 10th year in the league.
Twenty-one yards from now, he will pass Fred Taylor for 16th place on the NFL all-time rushing yardage list.
And it'll be just the first of quite a few dominoes likely to fall this season.
Peterson begins the year 17th all-time, but the top 10 -- top eight, actually -- is well within reach by season's end.
"Yeah, that's pretty good man," Peterson acknowledged. "I just try to stay humble, and just keep working, not get caught up in the hype of everything. I just gotta keep putting the work in."
Here's the work he'll need to put in:
After 21 yards and Fred Taylor, is the only active player still ahead of him --- Frank Gore, 366 yards away. But, of course, that's a moving target.
He'll pass Thurman Thomas with another 400, Franco Harris at 446, Marcus Allen at 569, and Edgerrin James at 572.
At 605 yards, he'll pass Marshall Faulk for 10th all-time, and 638 will top Jim Brown.
He needs 1,065 yards to pass Tony Dorsett for No. 8.
"I know records are made to be broke," Peterson said. "It'll be cool, just to be able to sit back and just take it all in, as I gradually pass everyone."
Peterson plans on keeping the ball he carries to pass each guy, and putting them on display in his house in Houston.
"When you reach a milestone like that," Peterson said, "it's something that you want to keep records of."
Of the 16 players ahead of Peterson on the all-time list, only four are not in the Hall of Fame. Only three have played their whole career with one team, like Peterson.
Seventh all-time is Eric Dickerson, 1,585 yards away, which would be a stretch to do this season – it'd take the third-highest single-season total of his career.
But Peterson is aiming even higher. He's long said his goal before his career is finished is to break Emmitt Smith's record for No. 1 all-time, and that hasn't changed.
"Yeah, yeah," Peterson said. "That's definitely still one of my goals that I want to reach."
Right now he's still 6,681 yards away, meaning he'd need more than 1,300 yards each of the next five seasons to do it. But he's only 900 yards behind Smith's pace.
"Yeah it's a lot of work," Peterson said, "but you get some big years in there, you can shorten that time a lot. So that's how I envision it playing out."
As high as Peterson climbs on the list, he's likely got some security to stay there. With the NFL becoming more of a passing league every year, and few running backs lasting as long as they used to, it's unlikely anyone will pass Peterson for quite some time. Or ever.
"The way I play, my style is to inspire young kids to be better than me," Peterson replied when asked his thoughts on that. "And me, personally, I want to be the best to ever play...So hopefully there will be someone that comes along that can do the same thing that I've done...I think it's just gonna take time for someone to come around."
Because players like Peterson don't come around very often.