Dalvin Cook Player Spotlight (1 Viewer)

[Chaka]

Good pull, but there are also quite a few outliers going in the other direction. Guys who were aging, practice-squad types, and wild statistical anomalies. For example, the fact that Jamaal Charles dipped from 6.40 per carry to "just" 5.29 after the injury doesn't discourage me.

I'm no doc, of course. But I'm still most interested in when the injury (and ensuing surgery) occurred. A guy who tears it in Week 16, for example, needs to be treated as though he won't be in decent shape until October or so. Cook went down in Week 4; I'm willing to bet he's a full-go at some point before camp.

A 17% drop in YPA should absolutely discourage you.  If Cook suffers a 17% drop off in YPA that puts him at 4.0 YPA. Even a 10% dropoff puts him on par with Latavius Murray at 4.3 YPA.

I think there are only three RBs in NFL history (Barry, Jim Brown and Charles) who averaged above 5 YPC for their careers.  Despite a nice start to his career before the injury I think it's a little early to put Cook in with those three.

And Charles suffered his injury in week 2, September 18, 2011.

 

[Chaka]

And should we really pencil in Cook for 4.8 YPA based upon 3 games and change? Do we really think he would have maintained that pace over 16 games?

 

[Biabreakable]

A 17% drop in YPA should absolutely discourage you.  If Cook suffers a 17% drop off in YPA that puts him at 4.0 YPA. Even a 10% dropoff puts him on par with Latavius Murray at 4.3 YPA.

I think there are only three RBs in NFL history (Barry, Jim Brown and Charles) who averaged above 5 YPC for their careers.  Despite a nice start to his career before the injury I think it's a little early to put Cook in with those three.

And Charles suffered his injury in week 2, September 18, 2011.

Adrian Peterson was 5 ypc average for his career prior to the 2016 season. He showed some decline on a lot of carries late in the 2015 season, then the 2016 season sealed it and his career ypc fell to 4.9 that year.

Of course Peterson who had MCL and ACL injuries in December of 2011 came back for the start of the 2012 season where he averaged 6 ypc and had a 2000+ rushing yard season, the best of his career.

 

[Biabreakable]

And should we really pencil in Cook for 4.8 YPA based upon 3 games and change? Do we really think he would have maintained that pace over 16 games?

I went with 4.5 ypc just because of regression to the mean considerations.

Of course Cook is dynamic enough that he may end up having higher than 4.8 ypc this season as well. Only time will tell.

 

[TripItUp]

I went with 4.5 ypc just because of regression to the mean considerations.

Of course Cook is dynamic enough that he may end up having higher than 4.8 ypc this season as well. Only time will tell.

A 4.5 YPC over a 16 game schedule and coming off ACL surgery.

I'll bet the house on the under.

 

[BigTex]

And should we really pencil in Cook for 4.8 YPA based upon 3 games and change? Do we really think he would have maintained that pace over 16 games?

I think it’s highly possible, Cook is a very special talent. He fell in the draft for the same reason Guice fell but that doesn’t take away how gifted they are.

Tex

 

[Biabreakable]

A 4.5 YPC over a 16 game schedule and coming off ACL surgery.

I'll bet the house on the under.

Well you already are predisposed to disliking Cook. 

This would be a bad beat for you I think and not a smart bet.

 

[Chaka]

Adrian Peterson was 5 ypc average for his career prior to the 2016 season. He showed some decline on a lot of carries late in the 2015 season, then the 2016 season sealed it and his career ypc fell to 4.9 that year.

Of course Peterson who had MCL and ACL injuries in December of 2011 came back for the start of the 2012 season where he averaged 6 ypc and had a 2000+ rushing yard season, the best of his career.

Well I guess if we add Adrian Peterson to the group of Barry Sanders, Jim Brown and Jamaal Charles then it totally makes sense to put Cook in that group too.

Without Peterson? No way. But with him Cook absolutely earned the distinction.

 

[Biabreakable]

Well I guess if we add Adrian Peterson to the group of Barry Sanders, Jim Brown and Jamaal Charles then it totally makes sense to put Cook in that group too.

Without Peterson? No way. But with him Cook absolutely earned the distinction.

Of course I am not saying Dalvin Cook is Adrian Peterson. I think what Peterson did in 2012 was pretty special and I certainly didnt expect him to do what he did. It is part of his legend.

I did think it was relevant to the discussion at hand however since the only real argument that people seem to have about Dalvin Cook right now is how well and how quickly he will recover from ACL.

Same medical staff in place here.

 

[Interseptopus]

Of course I am not saying Dalvin Cook is Adrian Peterson. I think what Peterson did in 2012 was pretty special and I certainly didnt expect him to do what he did. It is part of his legend.

I did think it was relevant to the discussion at hand however since the only real argument that people seem to have about Dalvin Cook right now is how well and how quickly he will recover from ACL.

Same medical staff in place here.

There isn't a whole lot of negative to say aside from his knee. That is very unknown at this point. No one knows how that knee will feel when he is at playing speed, not even Cook. 

If that knee is fine, and he holds up okay, yeah he is likely going to have a top 10 season and be very effective. I can't find much to dislike about him.

Another point being made about Watson, another hot rookie who got hurt last year, that I think holds true for Cook is that his rookie season was a very small sample size. So it's hard to really grade him. Hunt started out hot too and by the end was barely startable. So there are questions baout Hunt going into this season. No one knows, and we can only speculate, but it is reasonably possible that Cook could have had a similar slide as the season went on. 

I agree with what was said above, Cooks is being graded and drafted at what would be considered his ceiling, not really his floor/average. While I think he's one of the better RBs in the NFL, from a fantasy football standpoint he might not be the best value pick in drafts. Some of the predictions in here are staggering, you'd think you were in the Saquon Barkley thread

 

[Biabreakable]

There isn't a whole lot of negative to say aside from his knee. That is very unknown at this point. No one knows how that knee will feel when he is at playing speed, not even Cook. 

If that knee is fine, and he holds up okay, yeah he is likely going to have a top 10 season and be very effective. I can't find much to dislike about him.

Another point being made about Watson, another hot rookie who got hurt last year, that I think holds true for Cook is that his rookie season was a very small sample size. So it's hard to really grade him. Hunt started out hot too and by the end was barely startable. So there are questions baout Hunt going into this season. No one knows, and we can only speculate, but it is reasonably possible that Cook could have had a similar slide as the season went on. 

I agree with what was said above, Cooks is being graded and drafted at what would be considered his ceiling, not really his floor/average. While I think he's one of the better RBs in the NFL, from a fantasy football standpoint he might not be the best value pick in drafts. Some of the predictions in here are staggering, you'd think you were in the Saquon Barkley thread

Small sample size is certainly a challenge as far as trying to project for him over a full season, not enough data, and I totally agree that over a full season things tend to progress/regress towards the average and things like ypc may have been lower when you quadruple his rushing attempts as happens with most players. Other factors such as injuries to the Vikings offensive linemen I think made running the ball a bit harder as the season went on. Those early games the Vikings had some surprise factor with the new blocking shceme and personnel, including Cook that teams would adjust to over the course of the year.

However with the addition of Cousins, I think this sort of cancels itself out. If I were looking at a 16 game sample for Cook, I would expect numbers to improve with Cousins as the QB instead of Keenum/Bradford. 

Also Cook made some mistakes that I would expect him to correct and not make as frequently as is represented by this sample.

 

[Interseptopus]

Small sample size is certainly a challenge as far as trying to project for him over a full season, not enough data, and I totally agree that over a full season things tend to progress/regress towards the average and things like ypc may have been lower when you quadruple his rushing attempts as happens with most players. Other factors such as injuries to the Vikings offensive linemen I think made running the ball a bit harder as the season went on. Those early games the Vikings had some surprise factor with the new blocking shceme and personnel, including Cook that teams would adjust to over the course of the year.

However with the addition of Cousins, I think this sort of cancels itself out. If I were looking at a 16 game sample for Cook, I would expect numbers to improve with Cousins as the QB instead of Keenum/Bradford. 

Also Cook made some mistakes that I would expect him to correct and not make as frequently as is represented by this sample.

I completely agree. Cousins helps Cooks outlook a lot

 

[Chaka]

Of course I am not saying Dalvin Cook is Adrian Peterson. I think what Peterson did in 2012 was pretty special and I certainly didnt expect him to do what he did. It is part of his legend.

I did think it was relevant to the discussion at hand however since the only real argument that people seem to have about Dalvin Cook right now is how well and how quickly he will recover from ACL.

Same medical staff in place here.

I know you weren't but it speaks to the point that the big argument I am seeing about why the knee won't be an issue is to cite two of the best RBs to ever play the game. 

I love him long term and think he'll be fine in 2018, I just caution against expecting his three+ game average from 2017 to be his norm this season. And I think 4.5 is pretty optimistic too.

 

[TripItUp]

I know you weren't but it speaks to the point that the big argument I am seeing about why the knee won't be an issue is to cite two of the best RBs to ever play the game. 

I love him long term and think he'll be fine in 2018, I just caution against expecting his three+ game average from 2017 to be his norm this season. And I think 4.5 is pretty optimistic too.

 

[Biabreakable]

I know you weren't but it speaks to the point that the big argument I am seeing about why the knee won't be an issue is to cite two of the best RBs to ever play the game. 

I love him long term and think he'll be fine in 2018, I just caution against expecting his three+ game average from 2017 to be his norm this season. And I think 4.5 is pretty optimistic too.

I don't think 4.5 is optimistic since I consider Dalvin Cook an above average talent at RB and he posted a 4.8 ypc in the games he did play. So basically just splitting the difference of his ypc for 3.5 games with the average of 4.2 which = 4.5

 

[Chaka]

I don't think 4.5 is optimistic since I consider Dalvin Cook an above average talent at RB and he posted a 4.8 ypc in the games he did play. So basically just splitting the difference of his ypc for 3.5 games with the average of 4.2 which = 4.5

Personally I think, if he had played 16 he would have ended the season closer to 4.5 than 4.8 and I would project my downtick from that position.  I could see 4.2 on the season where maybe he finishes the season in the 4.5 range over the last few games.

 

[Biabreakable]

Personally I think, if he had played 16 he would have ended the season closer to 4.5 than 4.8 and I would project my downtick from that position.  I could see 4.2 on the season where maybe he finishes the season in the 4.5 range over the last few games.

I do not understand why.

He had 4.8 over the 3.5 games that he played. It wasn't 4.5 maybe it would have been on 200+ carries, maybe it wouldn't. As I said he slipped on a couple plays which if he didn't would have led to longer plays. Those mistakes are part of this sample.

To say you don't think he could average more than 4.2 at the beginning of the season is ignoring the fact that Cook was above 5 ypc in 3 of the 4 games that he played. The game against Tampa Bay was a complete blow out and they gave Cook 27 rushing attempts, a lot of those just winding down the clock with the game in hard.

 

[Chaka]

I do not understand why.

He had 4.8 over the 3.5 games that he played. It wasn't 4.5 maybe it would have been on 200+ carries, maybe it wouldn't. As I said he slipped on a couple plays which if he didn't would have led to longer plays. Those mistakes are part of this sample.

To say you don't think he could average more than 4.2 at the beginning of the season is ignoring the fact that Cook was above 5 ypc in 3 of the 4 games that he played. The game against Tampa Bay was a complete blow out and they gave Cook 27 rushing attempts, a lot of those just winding down the clock with the game in hard.

Because 4.8 is an amazing average and I have seen too many fast starts peter out over the course of a season. I think it is not realistic to expect that he would have continued at that pace.  You do, no big deal.

 

[TripItUp]

I do not understand why.

He had 4.8 over the 3.5 games that he played. It wasn't 4.5 maybe it would have been on 200+ carries, maybe it wouldn't. As I said he slipped on a couple plays which if he didn't would have led to longer plays. Those mistakes are part of this sample.

To say you don't think he could average more than 4.2 at the beginning of the season is ignoring the fact that Cook was above 5 ypc in 3 of the 4 games that he played. The game against Tampa Bay was a complete blow out and they gave Cook 27 rushing attempts, a lot of those just winding down the clock with the game in hard.

Bia, everybody respects your opinions, at a minimum they are well thought out and have reasoning.  

There are just several of use that expect his YPC to regress because A) 4.5 is historically a really high number and B) he's coming off ACL surgery.

Not a big deal, I think each of us know where we stand. 

ETA:  If Vegas set a line I'm pretty sure it would be below 4.5.  That doesn't mean anything, just food for thought.

 

[King of the Jungle]

Just came in to read 

One of the better hard stances on the board, it will be interesting how this plays out. 

 

[FF Ninja]

Man, some really strong opinions in this thread.

I agree with the sentiment that everything went right for the Vikings last year. Sure, Bradford got injured but Keenum performed better than the team was probably expecting Bradford to perform, so IMO that still counts as things going right. The result is all that matters. The offense was clicking and the defense was rock solid. It will be very difficult for the 2018 team to perform better even if they look better on paper.

I don't understand people brushing the loss of Shurmur under the rug. We see this happen every year. An OC leaves and they promote from within or hire someone who runs a similar offense and there's always the promise of continuity from last year, but then... we find out why the OC got promoted to HC. Turns out not all offensive coordinators are plug and play. Should we be surprised by this every year? When will people learn that OCs are not unlike players? Just because one guy has a similar style to the other doesn't mean he'll be just as good. Granted, sometimes it works. Much less than half the time, but sometimes it does.

And sure Cousins is better than Keenum on paper. I'm no Keenum fan. But the fact remains that 2017 Keenum played well. Personally, I'll be surprised if Cousins is able to maintain a 3:1 TD:INT ratio. I would bet against it. I'll take the under on 67.6% completion percentage, too. The 7.37 YPA will probably be similar, although Cousins has a decent shot to beat that one aspect. 

As for Dalvin himself, I get why people are excited. He was originally projected to be a 1st rounder. He ran a nice 40, but that was the first and last thing he did well at the combine. The rest of his combine hurt his draft stock. Those who were believers before the combine feel vindicated by his 3.5 games. Those who were wary point out just about anything can happen in 3.5 games.

I'm in the middle. I didn't know what to make of Dalvin before the draft. Still don't. I've watched this game enough to know that when an offense is clicking as well as Minnesota's was, it doesn't take a special player to put up special stats. I've even seen non-special players put up special stats on awful offenses in the span of 3-4 games. I've seen guys come back from ACL injuries on fire and I've seen guys come back a little slower for the following season. I've seen OC changes so smooth you wouldn't know a change happened and I've seen new offensive coordinators totally flop. I've seen QB upgrades on paper that turned out to be downgrades in reality. At Dalvin's price in both redraft and dynasty, I don't like the gamble. You should be getting a player you are confident in at that price. And in order to be confident in this situation, one must overlook some pretty big risk factors.

 

[travdogg]

Stat that I think matters: Latavius Murray went 10 for 10 on carries where 1 yard was needed for a 1st down or TD. That was the best rate(obviously) of any RB in the NFL. He was also a very good short yardage back in Oakland. With Cook coming off knee surgery, short yardage is the most sensible place to ease his workload, especially since Murray is better at it anyway. I like Cook as a player, but its very easy to see a scenario where he only has 7-8 TD's.

Interestingly, the only other RB with a 100% success rate on short yardage carries was Peyton Barber at 6 of 6. Like Cook, that also gives me some pause on Ronald Jones.

 

[TripItUp]

Interestingly, the only other RB with a 100% success rate on short yardage carries was Peyton Barber at 6 of 6. Like Cook, that also gives me some pause on Ronald Jones.

not to hijack, but watch Jones' game tape vs. Ohio state...not good.   Kid is way overrated IMHO.

 

[32 Counter Pass]

I am on board. I think a decent case could be made either on Cook. His injury history is a big red flag, but I am gonna trust my eyes and gamble on a big return. I have him in tiered with Fournette and Gordon, in no particular order.

 

[Ilov80s]

not to hijack, but watch Jones' game tape vs. Ohio state...not good.   Kid is way overrated IMHO.

I agree and disagree. I think Jones is overrated as a prospect but for redraft, he seems underrated. 

 

[TripItUp]

I agree and disagree. I think Jones is overrated as a prospect but for redraft, he seems underrated. 

That might be true, I just hate his game tape and was never impressed with him as a runner in college.  Was actually shocked when I saw his name popping up as a top RB prospect.

Tampa doesn't have much else so he'll get volume.

 

[Ilov80s]

That might be true, I just hate his game tape and was never impressed with him as a runner in college.  Was actually shocked when I saw his name popping up as a top RB prospect.

Tampa doesn't have much else so he'll get volume.

Right, I was really not a big fan and then he landed in Tampa which is just such a wide open situation. 

 

[barackdhouse]

That USC offensive line was atrocious. Hard to make any conclusions from the OSU game. Line got worked hard.

 

[Biabreakable]

That USC offensive line was atrocious. Hard to make any conclusions from the OSU game. Line got worked hard.

Sanquon Barkley had 21 rushing attempts for 44 yards (2.1 ypc) 1 TD 4 receptions 23 yards against Ohio State in 2017.

Barkley has some fantastic plays in this game. He also has a lot of carries for loss with the defense beating the offensive line right away and meeting him in the backfield over and over again.

From my charting Barkley gjsf a 61 overall score, so slightly above average even though he didn't create many yards, a lot of them are on his TD run which is beautiful. 

Ronald Jones had 19 rushing attempts 64 yards (3.4 ypc 0 receptions against Ohio State in 2017.

Jones has some excellent plays in this game, but like Barkley is meeting defenders in the backfield on a frequent basis.Jones shows his speed and burst on a few of these plays as well as some good footwork and shake ability when met by the first defender. The QB isn't fairing much better as the defense is playing in the backfield most of the game.

From my charting Jones had s 36 which is below average even though he didn't create many yards, his TD was in short yardage, got just a good enough block from the TE on the LB to give him the edge on the left side. Jones shows his burst by being able to run by a defender who has penetrated on his left and finds a lane up the middle to his right largely because of that burst and timing. He doesn't get much room to run like this often and takes advantage of it. Some other gritty plays where he uses his hand to keep from going down and is able to further advance the ball, good balance to not go down from the previous contact.