The Minnesota Vikings were an NFL powerhouse in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, capturing four conference championships in a seven-year period. While the Vikings came up short in all four of their Super Bowl appearances, their dominance didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the league.

In the following years, Minnesota especially excelled in the trenches, with many of its best players coming on the defensive line. On the other side of the ball, the Vikings have also utilized the run game to wear down opponents and win with physicality.

The type of running back that has led the team into battle has varied over time, but the objective has remained the same. Minnesota has seen several impressive running backs over the years, including one of the greatest of all time.

Adrian Peterson was one of the most gifted runners in football history, making him arguably the best running back of his generation and possibly the 21st century.

Peterson was a highly sought-after draft prospect after a stellar college career at Oklahoma. The Vikings took him seventh overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, and the rest is history.

Only injuries and suspensions could hold Peterson back, as he went on to make seven Pro Bowls and seven All-Pro teams in his 10 seasons with Minnesota. He exhibited tremendous instincts as a runner and used jump cuts to shake defenders and find running lanes.

Peterson was an energetic runner who fought for extra yardage, but his ability to maximize runs by finding space and following blockers was often overlooked.

The most successful season of Peterson’s career came in 2012, when he returned from an ACL injury to run for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns. He won both NFL MVP (he remains the last non-QB to win the award) and Offensive Player of the Year and finished second in Comeback Player of the Year voting.

The only knock on Peterson’s game was that he wasn’t the most refined pass catcher. As a pure runner, though, few did it better than him. His 11,747 rushing yards and 97 rushing touchdowns are both easily the most in Vikings history.

Chuck Foreman had a relatively short career. He spent eight years in the NFL, seven with the Vikings, before retiring after his age-30 season.

Foreman was a productive player early in his career and earned Pro Bowl and Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1973. He then scored 15 touchdowns in the 1974 season and finished in the top three in MVP voting. After two seasons, Foreman moved positions, going from fullback to running back.

This change led to him getting more touches and led to three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 1975 to 1977, a stretch during which he notched 32 touchdowns on the ground. One thing that didn’t change, though, was Foreman’s contributions as a receiver.

At a time when most teams preferred running the football over the aerial attack, he caught 336 passes with the Vikings and led the entire league in receptions with 73 in 1975. Foreman made four Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams in Minnesota and ran for 5,887 yards and 52 touchdowns with the franchise.