Biabreakable
Footballguy
It is splitting hairs a bit, but Dalvin Cook says he sees himself as similar to a young Jamal Charles, and Cook definitely is not as fast as young Jamal Charles. You will see Cook get caught from behind on long distance runs at times, and as mentioned in post linked by Faust above, Cook is realizing that everyone on the Vikings defense is fast, he is adjusting to a higher level of defensive play, as all rookies need to do. He may need to change some of his decision making process at times, plays that he felt confident in executing at the college level may require different tactics at the pro level.Agree with almost everything else @Biabreakable said though - and I agree he's a really good looking prospect with a high ceiling, I just dont want to overlook his deficiencies and over draft him.
I think Cook demonstrates good pad level and functional forward lean when he wants to, you just don't perhaps see this as often, because he is trying to create more explosive plays against a lower level of competition. He will need to adapt and NFL corners are very very good athletes. As Pete Berich points out, Cook is more powerful runner than some give him credit for. I have seen examples of him being engaged by 3 and 4 defenders where he still gains extra yardage because of good pad level for the most part, defenders all over him.
As far as the offense compared to the Falcons I don't have much disagreement there. I do think Sam Bradford is generally under rated and that the schedule doesn't look too bad either, but the Vikings not likely to be as good as the 2016 Falcons who scored the most TD last year. That said as far as TDs go, the Falcons only scored 2 more TD than the Vikings did in 2015. TD are hard to predict, the Falcons had a favorable schedule that year too but was only 23rd in offensive TD that year, a lot of turnovers and other things that contributed to that.. I think the Falcons getting Mack at center really helped their offensive line last year and they were missing WRs (White declined) in 2015 that they were able to improve in 2016 as far as factors that caused them to score more than the year before. Freeman benefited from being the second best receiving option in 2015 which changed in 2016 as they had more options.
I do expect some time share and Murray being used as a goal line RB seems pretty likely as well. I expect Cook to be a better player in 2018 than 2017. To me this mostly hinges on how much the Vikings can trust him in pass protection, as far as how much of the RB pie he will earn. I do think it is possible that Cook is the second or third best receiving option the Vikings have on the team. If they use him as a receiver a lot then his rookie season may be more productive than I am currently thinking.
I am pretty comfortable predicting Cook will be better than Freeman as a rookie. Thats not hard. Not sure what his TD upside is for his career, hard to predict that. Not likely the number one scoring offense though.
As a talent I think Cook is on a higher level than Freeman.
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