Adrian Peterson, a coach? After seeing the legend’s Seahawks impact Pete Carroll has asked
When Adrian Peterson signed with the Seahawks last month, he said what inspires him this far into his career is the opportunity to lead and impact others.
“Just coming out and being a leader. Bringing the extra energy to the facility. Allowing guys to see how I work. Also, on the field as well. That’s kind of what we’re judged off of,” the 36-year-old Peterson said before his first practice with Seattle Dec. 2.
“I think the biggest impact you can make is on an individual.”
Would the future Hall of Fame running back ending his 15th NFL season want to make that impact as a coach?
He’s played in just one game for the Seahawks, Dec. 5. That day he scored his 126th career touchdown to tie legend Jim Brown on the NFL’s all-time list in Seattle’s win over San Francisco. He hasn’t practiced since. He is finishing the season on injured reserve. General manager John Schneider said Sunday on the Seahawks radio network’s pregame show Peterson has “a little bit of a disk issue” in his lower back.
Yet Peterson’s impact has been so strong across so much of the team in such a short time, coach Pete Carroll has talked to the running back about possibly becoming an assistant coach, and potentially with the Seahawks.
“I did have a conversation with Adrian about being a coach,” Carroll said Wednesday.
“I told him that when I was coming up, I never wanted to be a coach. I prefaced it that way and then led him into it, that someday down the road he could think about that.”
Peterson’s response?
“He wants to play,” Carroll said.
“I don’t know what his plan is immediately. But he would be an extraordinary coach. And he has all of the right kind of makeup, background, and accomplishment that gives him the stature that few people could ever have in this business. His work ethic and all of the things that he could transfer — which we have already seen the impact of it, obviously.
“There are a lot of things that he can do in the world. He doesn’t have to be a ball coach, but he certainly would have a chance to be a great one.”
Peterson has a family and home back in Texas. After Tennessee released him following his three games with the Titans in November, Peterson was enjoying a tailgate party at an Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game — he’s a former Sooners star — when the Seahawks called to sign him this winter.
So no, he doesn’t need football. Not after earning $103 million from seven teams in his NFL career that began as the seventh-overall pick in the 2007 draft, by Minnesota.
Yet Rashaad Penny would support Peterson becoming a coach.
Penny and Carroll credit Peterson with reviving Penny, his season and his stalled career.
Penny was an often-injured first-round draft choice from 2018 just trying to stay on the field and the team following his sixth injury in four years with Seattle when Peterson arrived.
Since Peterson joined the Seahawks, Penny has rushed for 135-plus yards in three of the last four games. He romped through the Detroit Lions last weekend for a career-best 170 yards with two touchdowns.
Now, instead of a injury-prone back with an iffy future not just on the team but in the league after his contract ends with Seattle’s season finale Sunday at Arizona, Penny has become indispensable to the Seahawks for 2022.
“We need him,” Carroll said recently.
On Wednesday, the league named Penny the NFC offensive player of the week. It’s the first league award for Penny in his career.
Penny said Peterson talked to him about his recovery and return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament while with the Minnesota Vikings in 2011. Peterson came back the following year to rush for 2,097 yards and win the NFL’s most valuable player award.
Penny tore his ACL in December 2019. He didn’t return from that until Dec. 2020.
Peterson told Penny to go at opposing tacklers when he carried the ball, before they went at him.
“Which one is your injured knee?” Peterson said to Penny. “You attack them before they attack it.
“So it’s always just in the back of my head.”
Penny has 481 yards rushing and five touchdowns in the last four games after Peterson arrived.
“When you have a guy who has been running in this league for so long, and is on the verge of the Hall of Fame, it honestly gives you a boost and you want to mimic everything that you see him do,” Penny said. “We kind of have (had) the same, similar type of injuries, so I’ve torn his ear off with all of the questions I’ve asked.
“Having him and seeing him work in walk-through — which is a walk-through —watching him practice, and watching him prepare for a game, it honestly saved a lot of our running backs. We’re happy that he came in and was a leader from day one and he continued to lead and that was something we missed in the running back room with Chris being gone.
“I can’t thank him enough, and I’m happy to have him around.
“I wish he could continue to be around.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 4:57 PM.
