Well, it’s official. Dalvin Cook will be taking handoffs from Aaron Rodgers this season. Please excuse me while I go brush my teeth, as I just threw up in my mouth a bit.
This has been the offseason of hurt feelings and cold-blooded cuts from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the front office. We all could see this coming, especially considering the reputation of the Minnesota Vikings’ analytics-savvy, Wall Street-minded “Moneyball” GM. Still, it doesn’t make it less painful for many fans. As the team shed the bloated contracts of declining franchise stalwarts like Adam Thielen and Eric Kendricks, the Vikings faithful had to swallow that pill and move on. That was easier to do in evident cases of decline.
Releasing Dalvin Cook felt a bit different.
Sure, 2022 was far from Cook’s most successful season, but there may be myriad reasons for that. Cook’s agent made waves this offseason when he said that Cook played with a lingering shoulder injury, which affected his running between the tackles and his ability to fight through contact. While it may sound like an excuse, it would explain why Cook seemed to struggle so much hitting holes in Kevin O’Connell’s Mid-Zone heavy scheme.
Cook may also just be declining. Granted, 28 years old is not quite the geriatric cliff that 30 is for most runners, but Cook has played a lot of football. He’s been a bell-cow runner not only during his time with the Vikings, but since his breakout freshman season at Florida State.
Combining his college and pro numbers, Dalvin Cook has had 1,969 carries in his career; and that’s with a slower start his first two seasons in Minnesota due to injury.
For reference: Alvin Kamara is another bell-cow runner from Cook’s draft class, but he only has 1,345 combined carries between college and the pros. That’s 68% of the physical punishment Cook has endured. It’s also over 300 more carries than Christian McCaffrey has had in his college and pro career (1,657).
Adofo-Mensah had to look at this situation and make a judgment call. Cook was still a valuable asset with plenty of juice left in his legs; his highlight-reel run in Buffalo is evidence of that. But Adofo-Mensah made the call to move on when considering the price tag, the health concerns, and the direction of the franchise. Just as he did with Thielen, Kendricks, Za’Darius Smith, and Patrick Peterson. The youth movement had arrived in Minnesota.
The Vikings are in an interesting position when it comes to replacing some pillars of their roster. There is real reason for optimism. First-round pick Jordan Addison for Thielen, UDFA standout Ivan Pace Jr. for Kendricks, etc. But there’s still a lot of uncertainty in other spots.
Perhaps no situation feels more cloudy than the efforts to replace Minnesota’s star running back.
Fans haven’t gotten much of a look at veteran Alexander Mattison this training camp, but we don’t really need to. We know who Mattison is. He’s a solid, tough runner with just enough speed to get around the edge if he needs to. Mattison is at his best going in between the tackles and taking what the defense gives him. That could be a solid amount of easy yardage considering the amount of light boxes he’ll see as defenses configure themselves to slow down Justin Jefferson. He’s a fine player, albeit a bit uninspiring.
Then there are the young runners, all dark horse candidates to steal snaps this season.
Kene Nwangwu is still listed as RB2 on the depth chart, but he has been in and out of the lineup this season due to injury. We know he’s got home run speed on kickoff returns, but we’re still waiting for his next step as a consistent runner on offense.
Seventh-round rookie DeWayne McBride bounced back from a shaky preseason debut in Week 1 with a more steady yet unspectacular Week 2. Still, he looked more confident following his blocks and even found pay dirt for his first touchdown as a pro.
Then there’s perhaps the brightest glimmer of optimism. Last week, I highlighted the opportunity for second-year runner Ty Chandler to continue to carve out a role this preseason. He’s consistently made the most of his limited running room behind the second-team offensive line. Chandler still has some work to do reading his blocks and becoming a reliable pass protector on third down. However, he has shown marked improvement in those areas through two weeks of preseason games. Out of all the options at running back, Chandler’s development gets the fan in me the most excited.
Despite how many times the Vikings tell us with that they’re secure with this running back room, their actions indicate something different. In the past few weeks, they’ve brought in multiple veteran ball carriers for visits. If they really loved their running back situation, they wouldn’t be kicking the tires on Kareem Hunt and Mike Davis in consecutive weeks. Their visits may indicate concern about the health status of players like Mattison and Nwangwu. Or they could be looking for a veteran consistency they haven’t seen in Chandler or McBride.
Either way, it’s hard to imagine this running back room as it’s currently constructed matching Cook’s level of play. But that’s okay.
This team can find that necessary production in other ways. They invested in a solid run-blocking tight end like Josh Oliver because they see an opportunity to get more creative with their running game and blocking schemes, perhaps to overcome the loss of a talent like Cook.
Ultimately, the running game just needs to be good enough to serve its primary function: keeping defenses honest enough that Justin Jefferson can be free to do what he does best and melt opposing defensive coordinators’ brains.
But like many of the facets of the 2023 Vikings, the situation is unsettled. Even when it comes to roster construction, the Vikings may not be done adding pieces to this running back room. It could be a cost-friendly veteran reclamation project or another splashy trade like when Adofo-Mensah traded for T.J. Hockenson. It’d seem out of character for such an analytics-focused GM, but could he swing a bargain for a superstar like Jonathan Taylor? The draft capital likely wouldn’t be too crazy considering the new contract he’s gonna be due, and how poorly Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has handled the situation.
Minnesota has a few more weeks before the season starts to turn some of these open-ended questions into concrete answers. And for the fans’ sake, let’s hope they solve the running back conundrum — preferably in a way that doesn’t have the Vikings Googling videos of their ex to see him living it up in Metlife Stadium, and wondering if we shouldn’t have found a way to work things out.
