Adrian Peterson knows a thing or two about coming back from damage, and that’s why his read on John Mateer carries real weight.
When Roto Grinder’s Kyle Odegard asked Peterson about the Oklahoma quarterback, the former Sooners star said he saw two different versions of Mateer in 2025 after the signal-caller dealt with a broken thumb on his throwing hand for most of the season. Peterson said the first-half version of Mateer stood out to him, especially for the way he handled the game before the injury changed things.
“I really like John Mateer, man. He really impressed me, especially the first half of the season,” Peterson said.
“His decision-making, his ability to create things when it broke down. He kept plays alive using his feet.
“Then he had that injury where he had to have surgery, and in my personal opinion based on watching, I think that kind of hurt his confidence. I don’t think they would put him out there if he wasn’t healthy, but I could see a difference in the kid that was playing earlier in the year compared to who was out there against Texas.”
That perspective comes from a player who lived through his own injury battles at Oklahoma and still found ways to level up afterward. Peterson’s college career took off in 2004, when he became the Heisman Trophy runner-up and set multiple NCAA freshman records with 1,925 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns.
The injuries followed, though they never fully knocked him off course. In 2005, Peterson played through a broken foot and still finished with more than 1,000 rushing yards in 11 games. The next season, he broke his collarbone and was limited to seven games, yet again topped 1,000 yards.
His biggest bounce-back story came later in the NFL. Near the end of the 2011 season, Peterson tore his ACL and MCL, then returned for the start of the 2012 season and turned in an MVP year, finishing just 208 yards shy of the NFL single-season rushing record.
Peterson isn’t pretending Mateer and his own career are the same thing. But he does see the same basic challenge: what a player does after getting hurt.
“You go through things as players, especially at the quarterback position, and it’s all about how you respond,” Peterson said of Mateer. “I’m hoping that he’s able to look and see the difference, and then do everything he needs to do to get that confidence back. Make sure he’s back to the old version, and then a better version, of what he was.”
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