December 18th, 2008 
Matt Loede 
Posted in From: Pro Football Weekly
He’s not as valuable to his team as the Vikings running back who shares the same name. But the Bears’ Adrian Peterson has established himself as a bona fide keeper. “You look at his numbers over the years, and except for last year, when everybody struggled, he’s always gotten the job done,” a team insider said of the seventh-year back. “Obviously, he doesn’t have the ideal size and that second gear to break long runs, but he catches the ball real well out of the backfield, and when you see him run (like he did replacing the injured Matt Forte against the Saints in Week 15), you say, ‘Boy, he should get more carries.’ But he’s just always been a guy they wanted to upgrade.” That said, Peterson’s excellent special-teams ability adds an extra valuable dimension to his game. “There have been years where he’s been the leading special-teams tackler,” the insider said. “He fills a lot of roles.”
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