Kirk Cousins Apparently Wants Dalvin Cook Back
An offseason of change is slowly coming to an end as we now have an idea of how the roster will look, of course, there will still be a lot of competition happening in training camp to fill the final spots of the 53-man roster. One thing we know for sure is that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah released three staples of the organization – Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks, and Dalvin Cook.
Kirk Cousins Apparently Wants Dalvin Cook Back
Kendricks and Thielen departed three months ago, they have long found their 2023 teams. Thielen joins first-overall pick Bryce Young in Carolina and will compete for the top WR job in Frank Reich’s new offense. Kendricks, meanwhile, signed with the Los Angeles Chargers and he can be a key player as a linebacker in Brandon Staley’s defense. The Vikings curiously play both the Panthers and the Chargers in 2023.
Cook was just released and is still without a team. One player currently on the team wants to get his former teammate back if there is a chance and that guy is Kirk Cousins, quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings since 2018. He was available for the media on the second and final day of mandatory minicamp. The next time the players will be on the field will be in training camp. Cousins talked about Cook:
Dalvin Cook being released obviously was bigger news and I wanted to take my time to just acknowledge the respect I have for him as a player and as a person and the difference he has made for our team, his toughness, his consistency. He has been to four straight Pro Bowls, that says it all right there. I’m excited to see where he goes, I’ll always be pulling for him. And I’m kind of optimistically hoping maybe we get him back, who knows, but maybe there is an outside chance so we’ll see
A strange thing to say about a player who has just been released by the same team he wants him to sign with. That would be highly unusual. Is there a chance? The only possible way is if Cook doesn’t have much demand for his services in free agency and is only receiving low offers. If the offers are low enough, the purple team could get the idea that it might be worth it to bring him back for way cheaper than his original deal was. Again, all of this thought experiment is unlikely to happen.
That statement also shows how much respect Cousins has for his former teammate. There was not a single bad word spoken about Cook from any current or former Viking since his release became public. He was a fantastic leader for the Vikes. The human being combined with his still solid football talent will give him some options to choose from.
Cook rushed for more than 1,100 yards in four consecutive seasons and was the only player in the league to do that. Cousins has to get used to the fact that he will not hand the ball off to Cook but to Alexander Mattison instead who could be working in a committee with Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu, and DeWayne McBride. That type of running back group has been highly successful in the last 15 years.
Cook will join the AFC, according to the betting odds. His top four suitors are the Dolphins, the Broncos, the Bills, and the Jets.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
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