A surprise team has reportedly offered free agent running back Dalvin Cook $7 million.
That club? The very team that released the four-time Pro Bowler just a month ago, according to former NFL quarterback and CBS NFL analyst Boomer Esiason.
Speaking on a recent edition of “Boomer and Gio” (h/t Trevor Squire of Heavy.com), Esiason reported that the Minnesota Vikings have offered their former star running back a $7 million contract to return:
“There is a $7 million offer on the table for him to accept in Minnesota if he wants to go back — (I) don’t think he wants to go back…I don’t think the Miami Dolphins want to pay near the $7 million that he has on the table in Minnesota.”
The Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills (Dalvin’s younger brother, James, is a second-year running back there) have also been widely mentioned as strong candidates to land Cook. But here we are a month after his release from Minny, and Cook surprisingly remains unsigned.
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The defending NFC North champions released Cook in a cap-saving move, and it looks like they’ll hand the starting duties to Alexander Mattison. The 25-year-old has averaged a respectable 4.1 yards per carry through four NFL seasons.
Injuries limited Cook to 15 total games over his first two seasons, but he’s been one of the NFL’s elite running backs since 2019. The four-time Pro Bowler has exceeded 1,100 yards rushing in each of the last four years, including a career-high 1,557 yards and 16 touchdowns in the 2020 campaign.
It’s hard to make a case that the Vikings are better without Cook, so it would be a huge win for the organization if they managed to bring him back on a team-friendly one year deal. We’ll just have to continue to wait and see how this all plays out.
