Dallas Cowboys Rumors: If Adrian Peterson Goes On Trading Block, Cowboys Will Have Competition From Raiders

Running back Adrian Peterson has now officially been reinstated by the NFL and can resume football activities with the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, he doesn’t actually want to do that with them, and the trade rumors have now picked up again. As has been the case for months, the Dallas Cowboys are in the thick of the rumors, but so now are the Oakland Raiders.

On Friday, his reinstatement was made official by the NFL, and with just two weeks to go until the 2015 NFL Draft. In those two weeks, plenty of rumors are going to be thrown around, but Peterson is merely happy to be able to start up football again.

God’s Undeniable WILL pic.twitter.com/d5CYvVV21P

— Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) April 17, 2015

Peterson wants out of Minnesota, but the Vikings won’t just release him. They do have plenty of options though, and a trade could very well be easily possible. The Dallas Cowboys are an obvious rumored option as are the Arizona Cardinals, but ESPN now reports that the Oakland Raiders are interested as well.

Apparently, numerous NFL general managers believe the Raiders are contenders to land Peterson if a trade is brought about by Minnesota. Former Vikings, and current Raiders, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave was there when Peterson had his best season ever in 2012 with 2,097 yards rushing.

One other thing the Raiders have, that the Cowboys do not, is cap space.

Oakland is currently looking at about $20 million in salary cap space, and that’s huge. Yes, some will be used for draft picks and such, but that’s more than enough to cover the $15.4 million that Peterson will count against the cap this season.

It’s also true that the Raiders have running back Latavius Murray from last season and picked up Roy Helu and Trent Richardson this offseason. Still, it’s crazy to think that any team wouldn’t welcome in Adrian Peterson if they had the chance, no matter how crowded their backfield may be.

Peterson’s agent, Ben Dogra, is hoping that things go well for Peterson as it’s been a rough few months for him. He lost clients Trent Williams and Jeremy Maclin in the past four months, and now Forbes reports that J.J. Watt has fired him as well.

Any team that wants to possibly get in on a trade with the Vikings for Adrian Peterson will need to give up a lot. For the three teams mentioned to be in the running so far, here are the amount of draft picks they have in 2015.

• Dallas Cowboys – seven total picks, two in 7th round including 27th overall
• Oakland Raiders – seven total picks, one in each round including 4th overall
• Arizona Cardinals – eight total picks, two in 7th round including 24th overall

Rumors about the Dallas Cowboys going after Adrian Peterson in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings won’t die until after he is traded or the 2015 trade deadline hits. And now that the Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders are interested in making a trade, it could be a little bit more difficult for the Cowboys to pull it off.

[Image via Getty Images]