The Vikings should not play Dalvin Cook until he is ready

The Minnesota Vikings have one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL, but they should be patient in getting Cook back on the field.

Through the first five weeks of the 2018 season for the Minnesota Vikings, the offense has had its moments. Kirk Cousins has proved that he’s worth the fully guaranteed $84 million contract he signed last spring while Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs have blossomed into the top receiving duo in the NFL.

As a result, the Vikings currently hold the second-best passing offense (1,607 yards) in the league behind the Los Angeles Rams (1,686).

While it has made for an exciting (or nerve-racking depending on your makeup) brand of play, the Vikings have had one major issue; running the football.

Minnesota ranks 30th in the NFL with 329 yards rushing on the season and are the only team in the league without a rushing touchdown.

The easy catalyst to point out is that the Vikings’ offensive line has been anything but steady in the first five games and they have failed to open lanes in the running game. The other is the way Minnesota has handled the hamstring injury of Dalvin Cook.

Cook’s return from a torn ACL was one of the most highly anticipated storylines heading into the 2018 season.

In four games last year, he was electric in the backfield with 354 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. But he hasn’t topped the century mark on the season yet and he’s currently sitting with a total of just 98 rushing yards so far in 2018.

A lot of that is because of Cook’s hamstring injury suffered in overtime against the Green Bay Packers in Week 2. What started out as a cramp turned into something more and he missed Minnesota’s Week 3 disaster with the Buffalo Bills.

With a long layoff, Cook returned to action against the Rams in Week 4. But he was limited to just 10 touches in the first half before exiting the game and eventually missing last week’s matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles.

This week seems to be off to a good start with ESPN’s Courtney Cronin reporting that Cook not only got in a limited practice on Wednesday, but he isn’t doing the rehab work that he was doing on the side last week.

While that seems positive for Cook’s chances to play on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, the Vikings can look south to see a cautionary tale.

Leonard Fournette, who is the centerpiece of the Jacksonville Jaguars offense, is in a similar predicament after injuring his hamstring against the New York Giants in Week 1. After a couple weeks, the Jaguars threw him back on the field only to see him blow a tire once again and wind up back on the shelf.

Fournette hasn’t practiced since and a report from Florida Football Outsiders says that the Jaguars could possibly hold their star running back out through their Week 9 bye. If that’s true, the running back’s timetable could have gone from a month or so to a season-changing issue.

The Vikings have enough to withstand an extended absence from Cook (see Cousins, Thielen, Diggs), but they might not be able to keep up the same production through the air as the season rolls along. As Latavius Murray, Roc Thomas and Mike Boone have struggled, it’s clear that Minnesota will need Cook down the stretch.

Beginning Sunday, the Vikings enter a stretch where they face three teams under .500 in their next four games. All three of those teams (Arizona, New York Jets, Detroit Lions) rank in the bottom half of the league in rushing yards allowed with the Lions and Cardinals topping the list.

That stretch would indicate that the Vikings could survive another week or two if Cook needs it to get completely healthy.

The desire to get him back will be there after what Minnesota has failed to do on the ground during the first five weeks. But a healthy Cook in November and December might be worth holding off for at least another week.