Reason No. 3 – Because Dalvin Cook has injury history, the assumption is that Alexander Mattison will be healthy.
And this is very odd. Those touting an optimistic advocacy that Mattison will fill the Dalvin shoes admirably may very well be correct in the end. Vikings brass would certainly we gleeful; so would fans.
Yet, a semi-common argument is that Cook is somewhat expendable because he’s been hurt frequently. For this to be a salient viewpoint, it must operate under the pretense that the Option B has a documented history of the opposite–good health. Here, we just don’t know. Alexander Mattison might remain healthy. He might not tear his ACL. Mattison missed two games in 2019; he might not do that again. He could miss even more games in 2020. We don’t know.
This “Cook is not worth it because he is injury-prone” perspective is effectively invalidated if the team does not have a bonafide tailback with a documented history of durability. Otherwise, the team and its fans merely do a lot of wishful thinking.