The NFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the roster of the NFL All-Decade Team of the 2010s, which includes 52 players and two head coaches, on Monday morning.
The full team can be found here.
Minnesota Vikings fans will recognize a couple of familiar names, including one who was unanimously voted onto the roster. Running back Adrian Peterson is one of eight players voted unanimously onto the team. Other unanimous selections were quarterback Tom Brady, defensive tackle Aaron Donald, linebacker Von Miller, offensive tackle Joe Thomas, kicker Justin Tucker, defensive end J.J. Watt and guard Marshal Yanda.
Peterson’s performance in the 2010s is highlighted by his record-breaking 2012 season. He recorded 2,097 rushing yards, just eight yards shy of Eric Dickerson‘s all-time record for rushing yards in a single season, and carried the Vikings on his back to a playoff berth only months after tearing his ACL.
The unbelievable season included an unprecedented stretch of games in the second half of the season. From Week 7 until the rest of the season, Peterson’s lowest single-game rushing total was 86 yards, and he exceeded 100 yards in every other contest and exceeded 200 yards in two of those games. Overall, Peterson rushed for 1,598 yards in just the final 10 games of the 2012 season, good for nearly 160 yards per game.
Peterson also surpassed 1,200 yards in both the 2010 and 2013 seasons and added a rushing title in 2015 with 1,485 yards. More recently, Peterson has found success with the Washington Redskins, tallying 1,042 rushing yards in 2018 and 898 in 2019.
The 2010s featured most of Peterson’s prime. And during that time, Peterson was one of the best pure runners that have ever played the game. His combination of size, speed, power and quickness may not ever be seen again in football. He was that dominant, and the unanimous selection is certainly justified.
Cordarrelle Patterson is another name Vikings fans should recognize. Patterson has become known as one of the best kick returners who has ever played football. He recorded seven kickoff return touchdowns in the 2010s, five during his tenure as a Viking. He was named to the Pro Bowl and named a first-team All-Pro in 2013 and 2016 as a Viking and in 2019 as a Chicago Bear.
In three of his four seasons as a Viking (2013, 2015, 2016), Patterson led the NFL in kickoff return average. For his career, Patterson is averaging 29.9 yards per kickoff return and averaged 30.4 yards per return during his time in Minnesota.
That’s another no-brainer selection to the All-Decade Team.
One name surprisingly missing from the 2010s All-Decade Team is Vikings safety Harrison Smith. Since he was drafted in 2012, Smith has consistently performed as one of the best safeties in the entire league.
Statistically, Smith belongs on this team more than Eric Berry. Berry is a superstar, there’s no doubt about it, and his journey off the field to overcome Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and continue his NFL career is remarkable.
But if these decisions are made based exclusively by on-field production, Smith is the better choice in nearly every category. Despite playing two fewer seasons, Smith recorded more games played, more tackles, more interceptions, more forced fumbles, more tackles for loss and more sacks than Berry in the 2010s.
Smith has a history of being passed over for league-wide recognition despite his consistent elite play. For whatever reason, Smith’s dominance has received much less attention than the play of other safeties has. Perhaps that’s the sole reason for the decision to leave Smith off the All-Decade Team. Or it could have something to do with playing in a relatively small market compared to other players.
But it certainly could not have been about on-field production, because Smith is clearly superior choice by that criteria.
