AP

The goal is still to play in the opener.

Now that he has a practice under his belt, it seems more real to Adrian Peterson, and closer to reality.

“Despite what everyone else had to say, that was my vision,” Peterson said, via Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. “I seen a vision. I knew it was going to be a journey, a path, to get closer to that vision, and I’m closer. I see it. It’s closer now. It was far away in the beginning, but I’ve been working hard and just moving forward.

“So, hopefully, here in a couple weeks — here in a couple weeks, not hopefully — that vision will be right there in front of me in my lap. So, I’m looking forward to it.”

Peterson, who is less than eight months renewed from surgery to put his left knee back together, took 10 snaps during team drills, and ran twice, past defenders who were forbidden to touch him by coach Leslie Frazier.

“Initially, I kind of expected to get hit or bumped or something,” Peterson said, “and then I seen Coach Frazier run over to the defensive side of the ball and that kind of opened my eyes up to, hey, these guys are definitely not going to put their hands on me. I didn’t really like that too much.”

Asked if that meant he can’t put a shoulder into them, he grinned.

“Oh, I’m going to lower my shoulders,” Peterson said. “Those guys probably are going to get tired of touching off and get tired of me putting my shoulder into them. So, they’ll start firing back, and that’s pretty much what I wanted to do.”

Peterson stayed true to his word and didn’t wear a brace, and asked for more work than he was given.

He’s going to continue to push, but if Frazier’s smart, he’ll keep the hands-off order on for a bit.