One thing is clear from the first two weeks of the preseason: if the Washington Redskins want to contend in the NFC East, and the NFC as a whole, they have to improve their rushing attack. The Redskins lost rookie running back Derrius Guice for the season with a torn ACL on just his third carry of the preseason, opening up the carry competition to Samaje Perine and Rob Kelley.
Perine already got hurt and neither he nor Kelley have looked impressive. Enter Adrian Peterson (preferably riding in on a horse, holding a lighting bolt while "Thunderstruck" loudly plays) and Jamaal Charles (preferably flying on a hovercraft with Steely Dan jams in the background), two big-name veteran backs with interesting appeal.
According to NFL Media's Mike Garafolo, Peterson is slated to visit the Redskins on Monday. Josina Anderson of ESPN first reported the Charles visit for this week.
And you know what? This could be a good fit. Wait, wait, wait. Please stop scrolling down to the comments to complain about how Peterson is old and got traded from the Saints only to see their offense explode. We all know that.
The former MVP and multi-time rushing champ wasn't even perfect with the Cardinals last year (it was entirely unsurprising they didn't bring him back; he was only there because David Johnson was hurt). He had his moments, but he didn't look fantastic.
Washington, however, offers two things Arizona didn't have for Peterson: scheme and an offensive line. Peterson is the prototypical stick your foot in the ground, make one big cut and try to destroy everything in your path running back. He's the original ball of butcher knives! With Trent Williams, Morgan Moses and Brandon Scherff, the Redskins have enough maulers on the offensive line to open up holes for Peterson and give him a shot at picking up some chunk yardage.
No one thinks AP is going to show up and magically lead the league in rushing at the age of 33. But if you told me he was involved in a competition with Perine and Kelley and came out on top, I would totally buy that. He's a workhorse-style back who could alleviate some of the pressure on Alex Smith and allow the offense to be more balanced.
Charles is a little less of a perfect fit, maybe, but also intriguing. He's just 31 years old, but his last 1,000-yard season was back in 2014, when he snuck past the number (1,033 yards rushing) for the Chiefs. He has just 152 carries in the three years since then, including an extremely uninspiring effort for the Broncos last year.
He does have 46 catches over the last three seasons, but the Redskins already have Chris Thompson on the roster as their third-down back. If Charles ends up on the roster, it might say more about Thompson's recovery from a nasty broken fibula last year than anything else.
Washington rolling with a backfield that features both AP and Charles would be so perfectly Washington -- overpaying for some huge names who were really good a few years before. Except this wouldn't be out of choice, it would almost be out of necessity, because of what's happened to the Redskins' running back corps.
It sounds like a sneaky good idea in the middle of August and will probably be a disaster come September. Desperation is a stinky cologne.
