For the past six years, the Minnesota Vikings have leaned heavily on running back Dalvin Cook as a centerpiece of their offense. Despite playing every game of a season just once in six years, over the last four seasons, Cook rushed for more than 1,100 yards each time, averaged 43 receptions, and scored 46 touchdowns. That is a ton of production, but with a contract that called for him to get paid $10.4 million, the Vikings opted to release Cook. It wasn’t a move that was received well, but it was part of the franchise’s desire to rid itself of some large veteran contracts.
The Vikings made their intentions known months earlier when they re-signed Cook’s backup, Alexander Mattison, before he had the chance to test free agency (two years, $7 million) and did little else to shake things up in the running backs room. The message sent by the Cook release is that head coach Kevin O’Connell may want to replicate the Los Angeles Rams‘ pass-happy offense that won a Super Bowl when he was offensive coordinator.
For the first time since Adrian Peterson came to Minnesota in 2007, there are more questions than answers for the Vikings’ running game in the short- and long-term outlooks.
