I see that Melvin Gordon has been working out with Adrian Peterson, trying to improve his ball security. And I have to chuckle. We are talking about Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson, correct? The guy whose fourth-quarter fumble helped Seattle sneak out of town with 10-9 win in the playoffs last year?

Peterson is the best running back of his generation, but ball security has never been his forte. He coughed it up 7 times last year. His worst season came back in his second year, with 9 fumbles.

But to be fair, I have pulled up the numbers. And here I’m relying on www.pro-football-reference.com (an outstanding web site with sortable stat features).

Checking into it, there are 36 active running backs with at least 700 career touches. Peterson is a bottom-10 running back in that group.

RUNNING BACKS: FUMBLE RATES
RkPlayerFumTouchPct
1.LeVeon Bell1799.13%
2.Donald Brown4817.49%
3.Pierre Thomas71,252.56%
4.Danny Woodhead5780.64%
5.Rashad Jennings6918.65%
6.Lamar Miller5755.66%
7.Justin Forsett71,008.69%
8.Steven Jackson233,229.71%
9.Matt Forte202,522.79%
10.LeSean McCoy161,996.80%
11.Doug Martin8976.82%
12.Mark Ingram7851.82%
13.DeAngelo Williams161,895.84%
14.Chris Johnson212,396.88%
15.Alfred Morris111,125.98%
16.Eddie Lacy8814.98%
17.Arian Foster171,7031.00%
18.Mike Tolbert87911.01%
19.DeMarco Murray151,3431.12%
20.Marshawn Lynch272,3961.13%
21.Stevan Ridley97191.25%
22.Darren Sproles211,6521.27%
23.Chris Ivory129361.28%
24.Frank Gore403,0781.30%
25.Darren McFadden201,5321.31%
26.Jonathan Stewart191,4461.31%
27.Adrian Peterson382,6361.44%
28.Ryan Mathews181,1961.51%
29.LeGarrette Blount149301.51%
30.Jamaal Charles261,6541.57%
31.Tim Hightower127591.58%
32.Fred Jackson281,7311.62%
33.Ahmad Bradshaw221,3551.62%
34.Joique Bell127261.65%
35.Reggie Bush331,8451.79%
36.C.J. Spiller189881.82%

While we’ve got that open, let me chime in on a couple of other guys.

Stevan Ridley has a reputation as being a butter-fingered buffoon. He’s a guy you might think of as being a fumbler, given that Bill Belichick has benched him a couple of times. But the numbers suggest Ridley is more accurately close to average in ball security. He’s 21st on this list.

Sticking with the Patriots, I see Donald Brown up at No. 2, with only 4 fumbles in 817 career touches. With Belichick seemingly valuing guys who can hang onto the ball, that makes Brown a nice fit with that offense.

I wonder if C.J. Spiller will even make the New Orleans roster. He’s had a lot of knee problems, and they didn’t use him much last year. He’s last on this list.

If you want to ready the feel-good story about Melvin Gordon’s new-and-improved ball security, it’s at ESPN.com.

—Ian Allan