Adrian Peterson Will Be Leslie Frazier's Best Chance at Keeping the Job

Adrian Peterson's workload is about to go up.

The Minnesota Vikings are going to depend on their star running back even more now that Leslie Frazier has taken over as interim head coach. 

Over the last three games, Peterson has averaged roughly 15 carries a game. In fact, he's had less than 20 carries in 5 of the 10 games that he has played this season. Considering how much of a threat that he is, that's quite a low percentage.

You can expect that percentage to go up, starting with this weekend's game against the Washington Redskins.

Now that Frazier has taken over, the Vikings will focus more on the ground game. Just like every other defensive coordinator that has taken over a team, he's going to want to keep his defense on the sidelines as much as possible. In order to do that, the Vikings will have to control the clock with a consistent ground attack. To do so, Peterson is going to have to go from 21 carries a game to 25-30 carries.

Right now, Peterson is trailing Houston Texans running back Arian Foster by 24 yards. With the Vikings shifting the focus to the running game, he now has a very good chance at surpassing the second year back in the race for the rushing crown. Considering the fact that Peterson has broken the 100 yard mark in just 3 games this season, that's an incredible feat.

An even more incredible feat would be for Frazier to lead the Vikings to a 5-1 record to break even for the entire season. In order to do that, he has to lean on Peterson.