All due respect to Dalvin. This is why we wouldn’t ask Henry
Joe Johnson
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All due respect to Dalvin. This is why we wouldn’t ask Henry that
Dalvin Cook is having the best season of his young career. After emerging in 2019 as one of the most talented backs in the NFL, Cook stepped his game up even further this season and has been the focal point of one of the best offenses in the league since the bye.
Being that focal point means multiple games in which Cook has carried the ball 30 (or more times) which, when combined with the fact that he has yet to play a full 16-game-season (missing 50% of his first two seasons and limping into the playoffs last season), has caused many in Vikings media question whether there’s too much of a good thing going on in Minny.
There’s been a feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop in that regard, a feeling that was bolstered this week by reports that Vikings offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak said that Dalvin has been “beat up” the last couple weeks.
Perhaps that’s what lead a reporter to ask Cook about the potential of “wearing down” this season, a question that Cook took offense to.
“I don’t know what that is. What is that — wear down? What does that mean?” Cook said in the video of the virtual press conference posted on Vikings.com. “I’m a running back. I’m a running back just like anybody else. I don’t think that’s a question you’ll ask Derrick Henry or anybody else. I’m a running back. There’s no wearing down. i’m ready to tote the ball.”
Here’s the thing, though. There’s a reason why someone wouldn’t ask Henry that, one that is pretty obvious. Instead of explaining it, I’ll let this image from the 2020 winner of the “Why does this website exist?” Award (SportsInjuryPredictor.com) do the work for me.
Henry has missed two games in his five-year career. Meaning he’s been available or starting in 97.5% of the regular season games played since Tennessee selected him in 2016 (assuming he stays healthy the rest of the 2020 season).
Compare that to Cook’s history:
Cook missed 8-games in each of his first two seasons, and two games at the end of the 2019 season. Assuming he stays healthy the remainder of the 2020 season (which ups his percentage), Cook will have played in 63.5% of Vikings game since they drafted him.
That’s a big “If” when it comes to Cook, as Cook is nursing an ankle injury and has a history of non-contact/soft-tissue injuries. That makes it reasonable to feel as if the shoe is hovering, and to ask Cook something you wouldn’t ask Henry.
Imagine Troy Williamson scoffing at being asked about any off-season changes to how he catches the ball after spending the previous seasons with drop after drop. Imagine Williamson saying “You wouldn’t ask Moss that!”. Yeah, cause Moss caught balls thrown his direction.
Point being it’s a valid question and not one meant to malign Cook. In fact, I’d argue it stems from the opposite, the fear that Vikings writers/fans have that they’ll lose the best running back in the NFL yet again.
It’s also valid because Cook has amassed a lot of touches in 2020. In the past five games he’s averaged over 25 carries and over three catches, which if you extrapolated over a 16 game season… Carry the 2… Would make for a > 400 carry season.
Let’s all hope that Cook makes it through the 2020 season healthy and that his early career injuries were just a string of coincidences mixed with bad timing. However, it’s been well established that running backs have an internal touch count that determines when they begin their post-prime decline (more so than age) that is pretty standard regardless of who the back is.
But when the back is already someone that has missed a lot of time due to injury despite not having those carries / being young and spry? You begin to ask these sort of questions as while the Vikings still have a lot to play for in 2020, they also have a razor thin margin of error if they want to make the post-season which may mean that they’re adding a tremendous amount of touches to / against that touch threshold for what could amount to a 8-8 season.
I’m not implying that they shouldn’t be using Cook exactly as they have been. But, if they were to lose to Jacksonville this weekend (for example) we should look at whether or not they’re hurting their future by ignoring Cook’s past in the present.