What is the meaning of all this?
The only moves made by the Giants so far were salary cap-cutting measures. The team released beloved wideout Victor Cruz and cut last year's pseudo-starting running back Rashad Jennings to get themselves further under the ceiling. As NFL Network's Mike Garafolo noted, the Giants are going to make a serious run at defensive end Jason Pierre-Paulbefore the start of free agency and could use some available funds to court a player who might compare his value to the market-setting deal received by teammate Olivier Vernon back in March.
Perhaps Peterson is interpreting the ouster of Jennings as an opening, even though the team is quite high on 2016 rookie Paul Perkins, who rushed for 456 yards and caught another 162 yards worth of passes this season.
Maybe he is just very high on the re-signing of tight end Matt LaCosse.
While this is sure to set the internet ablaze, it's hard to imagine anything going down between the Giants and Vikings at this point. While general manager Jerry Reese has been one of the splashier executives over the past two seasons, the organization tends to shy away from dropping big money on veteran players. Vernon, Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were notable exceptions over the past few seasons because they were still in, or approaching the prime of their careers at the time of the deals.
Peterson, as you'll remember, listed the Giants as one of his preferred destinations if he could not work out a deal with the Vikings. Minnesota will almost certainly not keep him at his $11.75 million base salary next season after just 37 carries, 72 yards and another knee operation in 2016.
The only factor which gives me a moment's pause is thinking back to what Reese said about Manning being on the "back nine" of his career. The Giants have been spending, in part, to maximize the closing window on their 36-year-old quarterback and taking a flier on the greatest running back of his generation would be another way to ensure they exhausted every effort.
