It’s Time to Wake Up and Appreciate Dalvin Cook
Josh Frey
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After the Vikings’ thorough domination of the Detroit Lions, Dalvin Cook had some words of respect for Vikings’ legend and current Lion, Adrian Peterson. The comments came off the heels of Cook’s second consecutive Peterson-esque performance, in which he topped 200 yards rushing for the first time of his career.
“I’m just glad I got a chance to watch him growing up as a young kid,” Cook reflected. “He (doesn’t) know how much he impacted my career as a running back.”
Remembering AP
Cook’s sentiment is one that a lot of Vikings fans can probably relate to. Watching Adrian Peterson ball out in purple and gold every Sunday was must see TV.
Not only did he carry the 2008 Vikings all the way to their first division title in nine years, but Peterson’s MVP in 2012 is also just one of just three awards won by running backs in the 21st century (Faulk in 2000 and Tomlinson in 2006).
Peterson’s career is one that can only be re-created in Madden. As recently as 2018, during his age-33(!!!) season, he broke 1000 yards rushing with Washington. By doing so, he became just the fifth rusher to break 1000 yards at age 33 or older.
The most insane thing is that 1000 yards has been ho-hum for Peterson; 2018 was the eighth time he’s reached the milestone. Even during Sunday’s game, the now 35-year-old showed that he can still hang in the NFL, gathering 43 total yards in the contest.
Given Cook’s post-game tribute, it got me thinking about how his 2020 campaign might compare to some of Peterson’s great Vikings seasons. Through seven games played, Cook has totaled 858 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.
His rushing touchdown total is already just one off of his career-high 13 he had during 2019, and over the next eight games, he needs to average just under 35 yards per game to reach a career high in yards.
Fudging the Numbers a Bit
Certainly these stats are already great, but the scary thing is that they should be even better. Not only did Cook miss one and a quarter games this season, but if you remember, Cook was extremely underutilized during the first two weeks. He had just 12 carries in the season opener and 14 the following week.
Because of that, let’s have some fun. I’m going to skew these numbers to put into perspective how dominant Cook has been. Let’s just assume that Zimmer and Kubiak decided to use him in the first two weeks as much as they have in his last five games.
In his last five games, Cook has averaged 23.6 carries. I’ll even lower the number to 23. If we use the same yards per carry average that Cook actually produced, 4.2 against Green Bay and 4.5 against Tennessee, Cook would have ended up with 200.1 yards over these two games. I’ll make it easy and even it out at 200.
That would put Cook at 945 yards this season even with the time missed due to injury. It also would mean that, should he keep this pace for the remainder of the season, he would have been on track for 2025 yards.
For those keeping track at home, the current single season NFL record belongs to Eric Dickerson at 2105. A mark Peterson fell just eight yards shy of in 2012.
Waking Up
Cook is truly on a historic tear this season, but let’s get back to reality. How close is he really, not only to Dickerson’s 1984 season, but some of AP’s Viking seasons? Well, it obviously depends on how healthy he can remain for the rest of the year.
The fact that Cook has already missed time due to what is seemingly a usage injury is concerning, but he has come back with a vengeance the last two weeks. As it stands, here’s the pace that Cook is actually on for the 2020 season:
1838 rushing yards
26 rushing touchdowns
370 receiving yards
2 receiving touchdowns
Here are AP’s career highs in all these categories:
2097 rushing yards
18 rushing touchdowns
436 receiving yards
1 receiving touchdown
Taking a look at these numbers side by side is absolutely insane. Scrolling through Twitter, I’ve seen a lot of Vikings fans get mad when you mention Dalvin Cook’s name in the same breath as Peterson’s, and I get it. Peterson is one of the best to ever do it from the running back position.
However, it’s also time for fans to wake up a little bit and appreciate what we’re witnessing. Should he come anywhere near this pace, Cook will destroy Peterson’s touchdown total, and he will knock on the door of his franchise-record rushing total.
In fact, Cook is on pace to end up two-shy of LaDanian Tomlinson’s single-season touchdown record and to reach the 18th highest single-season rushing total. Threatening to have the best Viking season ever? No, Cook is on pace to have one of the best seasons in NFL history.