Vikings do the right thing in extending Adrian Peterson’s contract

I wouldn’t blame football fans for wondering whether awarding a seven-year, $100 million contract to a running back who doesn’t block all that well and is considered an average receiver as being a little excessive. But if we’ve learned anything about big money NFL contracts in recent years, it’s that appearances can be very deceiving.

Adrian Peterson’s contract extension announced on Saturday is one such example. The details aren’t confirmed yet, but it looks like #28 is guaranteed $36 million. So that’s what he will make. The $100 million is what he could make. And that’s a big difference.

There is always concern that teams will put themselves in salary cap hell when they sign veterans to big money deals that last more than three years. However, these deals are almost always renegotiated three of four years down the road, as teams approach the veterans to take a pay cut to free up salary cap space for some other player or players. This is how the game is played.

So Peterson will never see $100 million. In three or four years, management will ask him to restructure his existing deal (i.e. – take a cut in pay), and they’ll be doing so at a time when his production is about to decline, he’ll be less essential to the Vikings and he’ll have less leverage to say “no.” His contract will not hamstring the Vikings ability to pay for top talent in the future.

I also like the deal for a couple of other reasons:

1) It eliminates a potential distraction for Peterson and the Vikings. While I usually think “distractions” are overblown as a cause for team strife, it certainly does no harm to eliminate the possibility of one. If Peterson had been allowed to play this season under the final year of his rookie contract, he (and Vikings coach Leslie Frazier) would have been answering questions about this issue for the next five months. That would have been very annoying for Peterson and the entire Vikings team and it definitely would have been a distraction. This team is going to have a hard enough time winning games as it is, it doesn’t need off-the–field drama.

2) This contract makes Peterson a happy camper. It’s always wise to keep your best player happy. It also shows other players around the league that the Vikings will spend money to keep the players they really want. This will be noticed by players facing free agency in 2012.

One current Vikings player who probably isn’t totally thrilled by the Peterson signing is middle linebacker E.J. Henderson – who is in the final year of his contract and likely looking for one last big payday. If you think it’s unwise to give a 26-year-old running back a fat new contract, how folly would it be to resign a 31-year-old middle linebacker who suffered season-ending injuries in 2008 and 2009 to an expensive extension?