After tearing both his ACL and MCL at the end of last season many fantasy owners decided that Adrian Peterson wasn't worth the risk. Despite promising signs of recovery and Peterson consistently telling us that he would be playing in Week 1, he came at a discounted price.

It turns out he could be the steal of the draft.

Peterson's incredible Week 1 performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars gave fantasy owners who drafted him a huge confidence boost, and after seeing that I could conceivably see him being the top-scoring running back in fantasy this year.

Goal Line Action

One of the biggest risks with Peterson came when deciding whether or not to keep him in the game when the Vikings tried to punch it in. Peterson still got plenty of action on the goaline, however, and both of his touchdowns came from runs within three yards of the endzone.

This is a promising sign because it not only shows that the Vikings are supremely confident in Peterson's ability to run between the tackles, but it also means that he won't have many of his touchdowns stolen from him throughout the year.

Yards Per Carry

An effective running back is one who can consistently pick up three or four yards when necessary. We know that Peterson is going to get a lot of touches throughout the season, and the only question is how productive he will be with those carries.

On Sunday he proved that he can make the most of his touches, averaging an impressive 4.9 yards per carry.

We could easily see AD getting 25-30 touches per game, and if he somehow averages 4.9 yards per carry for the season he could potentially break 2,000 yards. Now, I'm certainly not saying he will, but I am saying that his impressive yards per carry numbers from Week 1 are a very promising sign of things to come.

Increased Workload

Obviously the Vikings wanted to hold Peterson back a bit in Week 1—they can't have their star running back go down in Week 1, so they wanted to limit the damage done to him.

Throughout the season we will see Peterson getting more and more touches, and he will certainly be getting more than 18 per game (he only had 18 on Sunday). When he sees more action he'll score more points; it really is as simple as that.

He's Done it Before

Adrian Peterson has seemingly been a top back in every season since he came into the league. He almost never lets fantasy owners down, and after showing that he's almost at 100 percent in Week 1 it would be foolish to expect him to start struggling anytime soon.

If you drafted Peterson you took a risk, and it looks like it's about to pay off.