Dalvin Cook

Dalvin Cook

August 10, 1995






         

College Tape

Notes on this game:


  • Fast with breakaway speed
  • Has the ability to catch the football on short and deep routes
  • Cook seems to have would be tacklers slip off during acceleration rather than breaking the tackle
  • Some difficulty with blitz pickup
  • Clearly has the ability to replicate college production in the NFL due to competition faced (Taco Charlton (DE), Ben Gedeon (LB), Peppers (LB/S), Chris Wormley (DE), Ryan Glasgow (DT),
  • Ben Gedeon a 4th round draft pick, also of the Vikings, misses multiple tackles (2:40) as well as a major tackle (teammate blocks off Gedeon as Cook accelerates by) at 5:43 that ends up costing the Wolverines a big play




Notes on this game:


  • Cook seems to go down when he's unable to speed away from tacklers, slipping tackles rather than breaking them. Difficult to explain but that's how it looks (3:03 perfect example of not using power to shed tackle). This may be an issue since I've seen some suggest Murray is the power to Cook's speed but I do not think we have a "power" back on the roster
    • There are a few examples where Cook spins off a tackle as well, specifically at 7:36 so I'm not saying that he won't be successful due to lack of moves to "break" tackles, I'm just saying he's not using power, he's using speed and it bears noting in the lead up to his debut as a rookie
  • Hands catcher
  • Cook is one play away from a TD, capable of taking it to the house at any time but seems willing to also get whats blocked while trying to create additional yards
  • Although Graham Barfield in his Yards Created article mentions that the FSU OL was not very good, in the video that I've watched Cook has been getting pretty good running lanes granted very poor blocking at 2:14 (which he beats by cutting back up the middle and creating yards) and 3:03
    • summary of the stats in above mentioned article are that Dalvin Cook:
      • created 5.53 yards per carry (7.23 yards created per carry out of the shotgun)
      • ran out of the gun/pistol 51.4% and under center 48.6%
      • faced 8 or more in the box on 42.06% of his carries
      • had .495 forced missed tackles per attempt
PFF

Pre-Draft

Sports Science featured Dalvin Cook and Alvin Kamara, highlighting their specific elite traits. Unfortunately I could not find the actual video on Youtube but here are some tweets highlighting the data from the segment:




The draft process was not kind to Dalvin Cook, not only did he suffer with worse than expected agility scores but he also had character concerns brought up consistently.

RBs selected ahead of Cook:

#4 Fournette
#8 McCaffrey

Teams with RB needs that passed in the 1st round but selected a RB later were Packers, Bengals, Eagles, Colts and Redskins.



Breakdown of the Stats

College

2015
Results 0 or <0
yards		 3 yards
or less		 4
yards		 5
yards		 5+ yards 10 yards 11-20 yards 21-30
yards		 31-49
yards		 50+ yards
1st down 26 30* 10 6 20 2 20$$$$$ 4$$ 2 2$
2nd down 17 17** 5 5 9 1 7 4$ 3$ 4$$
3rd down 8 6 1 3
4th down 1 2 1$
GL (1-10 yard) 4 5$$$$ 2 1 1
Receiving 2 3 1 3 5 3 3 3 1$

Legend
$ - Touchdown carries
* - fumbles carries

2016
Results 0 or <0
yards		 3 yards
or less		 4
yards		 5
yards		 5+ yards 10 yards 11-20 yards 21-30
yards		 31-49
yards		 50+ yards
1st down 30* 40 15 10 33* 3 13$$ 3$ 2$ 2$$
2nd down 19 24 13$ 6 17$ 1 13$$ 2 1 1
3rd down 4 9 1 1 1 1 4 1$ 1
4th down
GL (1-10 yard) 3 7$$$$ 2 2$$ 1$
Receiving 1 2* 1 12 3 6 5$* 2 1

NB: The play-by-play for the Syracuse game was incomplete noting 28 carries but only 26 carries were charted (unless I'm going blind) so the total carries will be 2 off the total of 288 per sports reference.


Dalvin Cook faced the following top 50 rushing defenses in 2016:
  • #12 Louisville
  • #26 Miami (FL)
  • #33 Wake Forest
  • #24 Clemson
  • #7 Boston College
  • #15 Michigan
  • #39 Florida
Just from a stats perspective Dalvin Cook seemed to be a very explosive RB. Here is what I've garnered from the raw data:

  • Cook ran for 0 yards or negative plays on 58 of 229 (25.3%) plays in 2015 and 56 of 286 (19.6%) plays in 2016. Compared to Mckinnon in 2014 (19.5%) and 2016 (20.7%) and Muray in 2015 (18.8%) and 2016 (16.4%), Cook has the higher number of negative plays. Cook was able to cut down on his negative plays with greater volume and solid competition, however the stuff rate is relatively high. This could be due to OL as both Mckinnon and Cook played behind worst OL's than Cook.
  • Cook ran for <0-3 yards on 116 of 229 (50.7%) plays in 2015 and 133 of 286 (46.5%) plays in 2016. Well below Murray and Mckinnon's stuff or low yardage runs.
  • Cook in 2015 score 4 TDs on 12 goal line carries with four other successful runs (4+ yards) and in 2016 scored 7 TDs on 14 goal line carries with five other successful runs (4+ yards). Cook improved as a goal line runner from 67% success rate to 79%. It is very likely that Cook will 
  • Cook ran for 10 yards or more on 53 of 229 (23.1%) plays in 2015 and 49 of 286 (17.1%) plays in 2016. Cook is the most explosive runner statistically on our team. Mckinnon and Murray respectively had 6% (2016), 12% (2014) and 8% (2016), 7% (2015) of plays going for 10 or more yards.
  • Cook had 10 or more yards receiving on 10 of his 25 (40%) catches in 2015 and 17 of his 33 (51.5%) catches in 2016
  • Cook had 4 or more yards receiving on 20 of his 25 (80%) catches in 2015 and 30 of his 33 (91) catches in 2016 which leads Murray and Mckinnon by a landslide (min. 17%)

Preseason

Cook continues to be elusive and his yards after contact numbers continue to impress even in the preseason since he's doing it against the vaunted Seahawks #1s.
Cook has run decisively in the preseason diagnosing and hitting the hole quickly.

The Vikings OL has been performing much better run blocking this year. Holes have been developing for Cook to run through and when he gets going he is slipping off tackles AND breaking them. That is a good development for the NFL.
Cook has had some troubles in pass protection. On this play he should've chipped the rusher whether it was his responsibility or not, instead he attempted to leak out for a catch. Bradford seems intent not to risk getting hit/injury this year, Cook has to give him time in the pocket by pass protecting.


Conclusion

 Although this could go even more in depth, I think this is far enough to see what kind of prospect Cook is. The athleticism question marks seemed to be addressed during the preseason and by the Sports Science testing. His off the field concerns has not risen its ugly head and the fumbling has seemingly not been a problem.

The only true concern for what looks to be our most explosive running and receiving back is pass protection. He seems more than capable as a runner, receiver and goal line back. One has to wonder where that leaves our other runners. At this moment I am going to re-shuffle the rankings a bit due to the actual snap distribution which is likely coming and list Cook ahead of Murray and Mckinnon.

Players ranked ahead of him:

1) Linval Joseph - Heart of the defense
2) Harrison Smith - Heart of the secondary
3) Xavier Rhodes - 2nd most talented player on the roster
4) Eric Kendricks - new age LB can play the pass and run
5) Everson Griffen - top DE, physical freak
6) Danielle Hunter - Most talented player on the roster
7) Sam Bradford - Potential to be great with the weight of the season on his shoulders
8) Teddy Bridgewater - The QB Minnesota deserves but not the one it needs right now
9) Anthony Barr - 3rd most talented player on the roster but questions abou nd
10) Stefon Diggs - Our best WR and one of the keys to the offenses success
11) Joe Berger - Our best and most consistent O-lineman
12) Riley Reiff - Our best OT and stands in the way of Clemmings starting
13) Adam Thielen - Efficient and constantly improving, could be in for another leap
14) Trae Waynes - Seems to have made a jump to being a starter, needs to get on field due to CB depth
15) Alex Boone - played OK last year which sadly ended up being our 2nd best grade
16) Andrew Sendejo - 2nd best safety by a mile
17) Kyle Rudolph - red zone threat and reliable outside of injuries but could be phased out
18) Pat Elflein - finally a massive investment in OL with the potential to replace Berger down the line
19) Terence Newman - CB depth is an issue, Newman has a ton of experience
20) Mike Remmers - Keeps Clemmings or Sirles (potentially not so bad) from starting at RT
21) Mackensie Alexander - SCB will have a major impact on our playoff and Superbowl hopes
22) Dalvin Cook - seems to be our most explosive runner and true 3 down RB
23) Latavius Murray - best blocker and capable of preventing sacks let through by the OL
24) Jerick Mckinnon - continued health issues have lost Mckinnon his opportunity

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