The Washington Redskins need a big year from Derrius Guice. Guice was supposed to be the team's starting running back last year, but ended up tearing his ACL in the preseason and missing the season. The team signed Adrian Peterson to help replace him, and Peterson ended up having a surprisingly strong campaign.
Peterson became the team's workhorse, and he wore down at the end of the season because of the heavy workload he had. Peterson is 34 now, and he won't be getting the ball nearly as much assuming Guice stays healthy. That might be a good thing for Peterson, as Redskins runnings backs coach Randy Jordan said recently he thinks it can help extend Peterson's career.
“Yes it can,” Jordan said of extending Peterson's career, per John Keim of ESPN.com. “There's no question the man has taken a lot of hits, but also delivered a lot. The thing I'm trying to get them to understand: All you guys can feed off each other. It allows them to come to the sidelines and see the whole game in a different light.”
Hopefully Jordan is right, and there's not any frustration in the backfield about who's getting the most snaps. Additionally, Jordan also thinks that Peterson can be useful for Guice. Peterson knows exactly what Guice is going through, having torn his ACL during the 2011 season.
“He knows there will be some hurdles,” Jordan said of Guice. “The great thing is he has one of the best players he can refer to and say, ‘Hey, man, when did you know you got it back when you came off your ACL injury?'”
After tearing his ACL in the last game of the 2011 season, Peterson came back with his famous 2,097 yard 2012 campaign. If Guice can put up anything close to that, Redskins fans will be ecstatic.
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