Dalvin Cook could be back at full strength for the Vikings by May
By Adam Patrick
The young Minnesota Vikings running back has been recovering from a torn ACL and is on track to possibly participate in OTAs this year.
It was quite the punch to the gut when Dalvin Cook went down with a knee injury last year in the middle of the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 4 loss to the Detroit Lions. Learning a little later that the running back’s official diagnosis was a season-ending torn ACL made it even worse.
Cook was having a very impressive rookie year for the Vikings in 2017 before his injury. Through his first three games, Cook’s 288 rushing yards were more than any other running back in the NFL not named Kareem Hunt.
Unfortunately, the injury cut short what could’ve been a record-setting rookie season for the young running back.
Since his season ended last October, Cook has been rehabbing his knee injury for the past few months and is expected to be good to go for the start of the 2018 season. In fact, the running back may even be healthy enough to participate in Minnesota’s upcoming OTAs this spring (which normally begin in May).
At least according to Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer on Thursday when speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Zimmer said Dalvin Cook, who tore his ACL in September, is going to be “pretty close” to being ready for OTAs. Head ATC Eric Sugarman has told Zimmer he’ll be good as new, better. All progressing well.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 1, 2018
It’s a good sign for Cook as it appears he is ahead of schedule in his recovery process.
At the same time though, the running back shouldn’t try and rush back onto the field if he is not yet back to full strength. The last thing Minnesota needs is for Cook to re-injure his knee because he didn’t want to miss out on participating in OTAs with his teammates.
In terms of the young running back’s role next season, Zimmer didn’t indicate that his snap count would look much different from 2017. The Vikings head coach said Cook, “will probably get the majority of the carries,” of any Minnesota running back next season.
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If that ends up being the case, the Vikings just hope that Cook will pick up right where he left off last year and emerge as one of the top backs in the entire league.