If you missed my live Vikings chat on Tuesday afternoon, you can check in here and read the back and forth in full. In addition, each week I go overtime, bringing good questions I didn't get around to answering on the chat here to the Access Vikings blog for discussion.
Here we go …
Question 1: Adrian Peterson sure seems like he's the undisputed best running back in the NFL again. And he'd probably be an MVP candidate if the Vikings made the playoffs. But in all honesty, in this era of pass-happy football, what does having the best running back in the league really get you? Also, has there ever been a back to lead the NFL in rushing while getting so little help from his quarterback?
Good question. And we took the liberty to find out, looking back at the past 10 rushing champions, seeing how their teams fared and assessing what their quarterbacks did. (We also projected Peterson's final stats for this season based on his current pace.) Have at it …
YR RB TM CAR. YDS YPC REC YDS TOTAL TDs W-L QB TM PASS YDS/GM '12 Adrian Peterson MIN 312 1,928 6.2 48 260 11 8-8 Christian Ponder 180.6 '11 Maurice Jones-Drew JAX 343 1,606 4.6 43 374 11 5-11 Blaine Gabbert 156.9 '10 Arian Foster HOU 327 1,616 4.9 66 604 18 6-10 Matt Schaub 273.1 '09 Chris Johnson TEN 358 2,006 5.6 50 503 16 8-8 Vince Young 194.0 '08 Adrian Peterson MIN 363 1,760 4.8 21 125 10 10-6 Gus Frerotte 201.1 '07 LaDainian Tomlinson SD 315 1,474 4.7 60 475 18 11-5 Philip Rivers 198.4 '06 LaDainian Tomlinson SD 348 1,815 5.2 56 508 31 14-2 Philip Rivers 213.3 '05 Shaun Alexander SEA 370 1,880 5.1 15 78 28 13-3 Matt Hasselbeck 227.0 '04 Curtis Martin NYJ 371 1,697 4.6 41 245 14 10-6 Chad Pennington 201.9 '03 Jamal Lewis BAL 387 2,066 5.3 26 205 14 10-6 Kyle Boller 157.3 '02 Ricky Williams MIA 383 1,853 4.8 47 363 17 9-7 Jay Fiedler 191.8 AVG 356 1,777 5.0 43 348 18 10-6 201.5 [ NOTE: The final row lists the averages of the past 10 rush champions coming into this season. Also worth noting, the rushing champions to make the postseason were Lewis, Martin, Alexander, Tomlinson (both seasons) and Peterson.] In summary, it appears that only Jamal Lewis in 2003 and Maurice Jones-Drew last season were getting less complementary help from their passing attacks while still having monster seasons on the ground. It's also interesting to note that six of the past 10 rushing champions have played in the postseason, including Peterson in 2008.
We'll let you draw your own conclusions from all the other statistics above. Have fun.
Question 2: The consternation from fans and talking heads regarding Ponder is fairly entertaining. Most people didn't pick this team to win the six games it has already won. We've got no decent healthy receivers. And Ponder has now basically played one full season. How can this team possibly complete an evaluation of this QB without playing him these last 4 games?
Well, for starters, let's just put out the reminder that the Vikings plan to give Ponder the final four games to regroup. Barring injury, he'll likely be the starter the rest of the way. And these final four games will also add to the thorough evaluation being done by just about everyone right now, including the coaching staff and front office.