For the next couple of weeks, every couple of days, we’ll be profiling the players we think will be the most instrumental to the Bears’ success in 2008. Not in a racist way or anything. Although, one of the guys’ on our list last name is Brown.

What does that even mean?

# 10. Adrian Peterson                                            

No, not our Adrian Peterson. Hey, who said every player on this list had to be a Chicago Bear?

It’s almost a joke, but it’s not. Last year, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson ran wild on the Bears defense in their Week 6 meeting, gaining 224 yards on 20 carries and scoring three touchdowns. Even so, the Bears had managed to tie the game with 1:38 left when, you guess who, returned the ensuing kickoff into Bears territory, setting up Ryan Longwell’s game-winning 55-yard field goal.

In their second meeting, before a national television audience, the Bears defense performed much more admirably. And you’d think holding Peterson to 78 yards rushing, the Bears could have chalked up one for the win column. Wrong. Despite a lack of significant yards, Peterson scored two touchdowns – the decisive role in Minnesota’s 20-13 victory.

The Bears will play Peterson, granted he stays healthy, twice a year, every year for the next decade or more. That means the defense will need to stifle, quite possibly, the most electrifying running back in the NFL. I’m not the type of fan who wishes injury on anyone — with the exception of Panthers wideout Steve Smith in the 2005 divisional playoff — but it would be real nice if “All Day” could take two days off this year.

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