NEWSLETTER
No Davin Cook, no problem for the Minnesota Vikings?
Cook has been the bell-cow running back in Minnesota for the last six seasons. Even amid concerns regarding his durability, Cook turned in the most durable season of his career in 2022. Still, Cook’s most expensive years of his extension signed in 2020 have arrived, and Cook is entering his seventh season in the NFL.
Durability, and more specifically, durability and production versus cost has become a concern in Minnesota. So, it’s no surprise that Vikings’ head coach Kevin O’Connell is singing the praises of Alex Mattison at Vikings’ OTAs this week.
O’Connell said Mattison has taken ownership of the three-down role created by Cook’s absence from practice. A role that O’Connell believes Mattison has been “capable of for a long time.”
“Yeah, this spring, it’s been really good to see Alex Mattison take a few more reps and really show that all-three-down kind of ownership that he’s been capable of for a long time.”
O’Connell also praised the young Vikings’ running backs who were at OTAs:
“I think between Kene [Nwangwu] and Ty [Chandler], there already seems to be a nice competition there, because both those guys are having really solid springs and showing their versatility.”
O’Connell even name-checked rookie seventh-rounder DeWayne McBride, whom O’Connell says is “coming along really well.”
It sure sounds like the Vikings are ready for life after Dalvin Cook at this point. I wrote earlier this month about the weird hold-up in moving on from Cook, and what the wait could mean for the financial implications of the move.
You can read more about that here:
Is Jordan Addison banged up?
One noticeable absence from Vikings OTAs was rookie wide receiver, Jordan Addison. According to O’Connell, Addison is slightly banged up, but the Vikings are being “overly cautious” with the rookie wideout.
“Yeah, we’re being overly cautious with him right now,” O’Connell said. just something that kind of popped up toward the tail end of rookie minicamp. Nothing serious at all. My big thing with him right now is there’s just so much learning going on for him. We’ve got big plans for him, obviously, but want to make sure mentally he’s in a good space and physically at his best when we allow him to truly go out there and turn it loose. And really, it’s just a matter of what phase of the offseason we’re in right now, where learning is at a premium, and we want to make sure he’s getting every possible resource and avenue that we can, so when his time comes to activate him fully within our group, he’s ready to roll.”
There isn’t much long-term concern over Addison’s injury. However, seeing what the Vikings’ offense can do with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison together will be interesting. O’Connell clarified that Minnesota has “big plans” for Addison, so I wouldn’t expect Addison to be slow-rolled into the offense.
Speaking of Jefferson, he was not in attendance, and O’Connell doesn’t expect him to be there until training camp. While O’Connell would like Jefferson to be there, he said the two have spoken and are on the same page. O’Connell insisted that Jefferson was getting his work in while down in Florida.
But let’s be frank, this might be an issue that bleeds into training camp if the Vikings don’t get an extension done with Jefferson between now and then.
More on running back Ty Chandler …
If the Vikings move on from Dalvin Cook, expect second-year running back Ty Chandler to slot in behind Alex Mattison on the depth chart. O’Connell shared some insight on the progress that the 2022 fifth-rounder has made this spring:
“I thought instinctively, even when he didn’t truly know the offense from an ins-and-outs standpoint of what his responsibility was, I thought the last preseason you saw a ton of natural instincts as a runner show up, toughness, great finish. We’ve seen his impact in the pass game and kind of his overall football IQ show up from Day 1. That was a huge reason we kind of fell in love with him a year ago. He’s having a really good offseason, and I think he’s excited. That Year 1 to Year 2 jump at that position, just the feel of, not a lot of these guys get real tangible reps of feeling our NFL run-scheme concepts, how certain combinations are hit, so I think every rep for him matters, and it did last year. I thought he used truly a year where he had some different roles before the injury where he could be activated on teams, get a jersey on game day and ultimately make sure each and every week was a developmental process for him so he could be ready to go for this year.”
