Dalvin Cook is on pace to make history this season

The Minnesota Vikings running back is in the middle of a very impressive season that will likely result in him setting a bunch of team records in numerous categories.

With good reason, there were a number of questions surrounding Dalvin Cook as he was preparing for his third season with the Minnesota Vikings this past summer.

Cook, who was selected in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Vikings, was sidelined for more than 15 games during his first two years in the league. And even though he showed flashes of excellence during the times when he was actually on the field, his injury problems made it hard to determine how much of a factor he might be for Minnesota in 2019.

Well, here we are, 11 games into the season and Cook is arguably performing better than any other running back in the entire NFL.

So far this year, the talented Vikings running back has rushed for 1,017 yards and 11 touchdowns on 214 carries (4.8 yards per attempt) while also catching 45 passes for 455 yards. His 1,472 total yards from scrimmage are already the 18th-highest amount in a single season by any player in Minnesota team history.

If Cook is able to remain healthy for the remainder of the year, his current pace could end up resulting in him finishing with more than 2,000 total yards this season. If this were to happen, he would become just the second player in Vikings history to end a year with at least 2,000 total yards.

Adrian Peterson back in 2012 is still currently the only player to gain more than 2,000 total yards in a single-season for Minnesota. That turned out to be a pretty good year for Peterson since all he did was go on to be named the NFL’s MVP.

In addition to his yards from scrimmage, Cook is also on pace to become the sixth running back in Vikings history to catch at least 65 passes in a single season.

Currently sitting with 11 rushing touchdowns, the talented Minnesota running back still has a slight chance to break Peterson’s team record for rushing touchdowns in a single season when he had 18 back in 2009.

Cook would need to make at least eight more trips to the end zone on the ground during the Vikings’ final five games this year and while it sounds like a tall task, don’t doubt his ability to break the record either.

In his first full season with Minnesota, Cook has finally been able to show why the team chose to use a second-round draft selection on him in 2017. He’s been playing at an extremely high level this year and the scariest thing of all might be that he likely hasn’t even hit his peak as a running back yet.