Adrian Peterson Injury: Star RB's Injury Terrible Sign for Fading Franchise

Things in Minnesota have not been going well for a long time. With Adrian Peterson's injury today, it appears as though they have gone from bad to terrible, and the future's looking bleak. 

Two years ago, this team was minutes away from making the Super Bowl. Then, this happened. 

Things have not been the same for the Vikings since.

Now, we have an Adrian to their franchise player that looks bad. There's really no way around it. 

Jay Glazer of Fox Sports is reporting that the Vikings believe Peterson tore his ACL. The recovery for that could possibly extend into next season. 

But for the sake of argument, let's say that the injury isn't that bad and that Peterson's healthy by the time training camp starts next season. This is still bad. 

These are the injuries that running backs don't bounce back from. This is why they have exceptionally short careers. It's why there are so few featured backs in the league anymore. This isn't necessarily a career-ending injury, but it's hard to imagine Peterson ever being the same kind of back.

With the exception of Jared Allen, this franchise has had nothing go right for it over the last two seasons. They have a rookie quarterback who needs a strong running attack to develop. 

Without Peterson, what do they have for Christian Ponder to develop with? They have more or less the same team that went 6-10 in 2010 and is in the midst of a 3-12 campaign. 

The 2009 season feels like it was 20 years ago. Brett Favre and Sidney Rice are gone from that team, and Peterson will not be the same kind of back that he was then. This is a franchise that will need to rebuild for a few years before being competitive again. 

Look at what they'll be dealing with next season. 

The defending champion Green Bay Packers, who don't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. The Detroit Lions just wrapped up a playoff spot today, and have a young core group of players that will not be going anywhere. And the Chicago Bears. The team that made the NFC Championship game a season ago and was well on their way to the playoffs this year before an unfortunate rash of injuries. 

The Vikings are already the worst team in that division by a good distance, and just effectively lost their best player. 

Even in the parity driven NFL, it's hard to imagine this team being relevant for quite some time.

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