Larry Fitzgerald wouldn't mind having Adrian Peterson as a teammate. (USATSI)
Larry Fitzgerald wouldn't mind having Adrian Peterson as a teammate. (USATSI)

It's looking more and more like the only way Adrian Peterson won't be spending the 2015 season in Minnesota is if he gets traded and if that happens, Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald would welcome Peterson to Arizona with open arms. 

While playing in the Pro-Am at the LPGA Founders Cup this week, Fitzgerald told the team's official website that adding a running back like Peterson would be a "game-changer" for the Cardinals. 

"Obviously, he's an MVP-caliber player," Fitzgerald said. "Everybody knows that. Any team he ends up with -- or if he stays with the Vikings -- is going to have a great back. If he was to come play here, it would obviously mean a tremendous amount for our ballclub."

The Cardinals clearly aren't trying to hide their interest in Peterson. Think about it: The team's official website just asked one of the team's star players his feelings about adding Peterson and then published that star player's Pro-Peterson thoughts. 

Now the question becomes: Can the Cardinals pull off a trade?

According to Yahoo Sports, Arizona would be willing to trade a second-round pick for Peterson -- and possibly rework his contract, which has three years left on it and is slated to pay Peterson a total of $13 million in 2015. 

If traded, Peterson is believed to be looking for a new deal that would guarantee him at least $25 million over the next three years, according to Yahoo. Of course, restructuring the deal wouldn't be a bad thing for the Cardinals because it would give them a chance to trim down the cap hit they'd take from Peterson's contract in 2015. 

One of the other obstacles in the way of a trade Peterson is that it's possible the Vikings don't even want to trade Peterson, unless they get a ridiculous offer. The Vikings have already made it clear they're not going to release Peterson and they may have no intention of trading him unless they can score a first-round pick. 

Peterson seems to understand it's not going to be easy to leave Minnesota and that might be why his camp is now playing hardball.

Peterson's agent, Ben Dogra, turned down a dinner invite from Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. The dinner would've taken place in Phoenix at the NFL owners meetings this weekend.

Instead, the Vikings front office will be at the owners meetings in Arizona from March 22-25 knowing very well that the Cardinals would be interested in adding Peterson. 

Will a deal get done? It's hard to say, but the Vikings do know they can be competitive without Peterson. The team finished 7-9 in 2014, a record that includes going 1-4 in games that were decided by three or less points. If the Vikings could've just gone 3-2 in close games, they would've finished 9-7.