Vikings RB Adrian Peterson was asked about potentially catching more passes. He replied, "I'm pretty excited about that... Just to be more diverse as an offense, and be more involved in the pass game is something that I've been looking forward to for a long time."
He’s coming off of a #6 finish (and groin surgery); it’s the second time in three seasons that he has finished outside of the top 5. He turns 29 in March and while he should continue to be very productive when healthy, one wonders if his 2,241 touches are starting to catch up to him. Along with his sheer talent, there is another reason to be excited about AP’s upside in 2014 — the arrival of OC Norv Turner, who knows what he’s doing on that side of the ball. Turner emphasized that he wants to get Peterson the ball in space, and that means more receptions. Peterson has only averaged 2.0 catches in his career, and has been curiously underutilized in the passing game since day one. He's not quite the natural receiver as LaDainian Tomlinson was, but as a Turner-RB comparison, Tomlinson averaged 3.7 receptions throughout his career, which extrapolates to 59 catches over a full, 16-game season. We're not sure AP will see quite that many receptions, but we currently project him to catch a career-high 48 passes in 2014.
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