After losing one of the youngest running backs in the NFL for the season, the Washington Redskins are turning to one of the oldest ones.
Washington has signed veteran running back Adrian Peterson, the team announced Monday. The team hosted Peterson for a workout earlier in the day.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but multiple outlets reported it is a one-year contract.
"I'm excited," Peterson told the team's website. "It's been a long offseason but I've been keeping my body in shape and [I'm] ready for this opportunity. So when this opportunity presented itself, I was just excited."
The team also worked out Jamaal Charles and Orleans Darkwa on Sunday before signing Peterson.
Peterson, 33, will be playing for his third different team since the kickoff of last season after spending the first 10 years of his career in Minnesota. He ranks 12th in NFL history with 12,276 rushing yards, though he has not reached 1,000 yards in a season since 2015. He has played in only 13 games and ran for only 601 yards the last two seasons combined.
The Redskins have a need at running back after losing rookie second-round pick Derrius Guice to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the team's preseason opener on Aug. 9. The injury left them with Rob Kelley, Chris Thompson and Samaje Perine as the likely candidates for the starting job. They were the three leading rushers on the Redskins in 2017, when the team finished 27th in the NFL in rushing offense.
Perine and fellow back Byron Marshall are battling ankle injuries, while Thompson is working back from a broken leg that ended his 2017 season prematurely.
Peterson began last season with New Orleans, but the Saints traded him to the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 10 after Peterson struggled to find carries in a backfield that included Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram.
With David Johnson lost for the season in Week 1, Peterson found carries and success early in the desert with a 134-yard, two-touchdown debut. He ran for 159 yards two weeks later but played in only three more games, finishing with 448 yards and those two touchdowns on 129 carries.
Washington opens the 2018 season at Arizona.
--Field Level Media