Adrian Peterson

Seventh overall pick in 2007 who set a rookie single-game rushing record and returned from ACL/MCL tears to finish just nine yards shy of the single-season mark.

Adrian Peterson was selected seventh overall in the 2007 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings. As a rookie, he set an NFL record with 296 rushing yards in a single game and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He became only the fifth player in NFL history to gain more than 3,000 yards through his first two seasons. In 2010, he became the fifth-soonest player to run for 5,000 yards, doing so in his 51st game. After tearing both his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in late 2011, he returned by the start of the 2012 season with 2,097 rushing yards, just nine yards shy of Eric Dickerson's single-season record. For that effort, he received the NFL MVP Award, becoming the most recent nonquarterback to win it.