Patriots’ key front office exec hints at potential Dalvin Cook interest

The New England Patriots aren't closing the door on possibly making a big signing after losing out on DeAndre Hopkins.

Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh indicated that the team could be exploring potentially signing Dalvin Cook.

“We explore as many options as we can. Dalvin’s another player,” Groh said in a press conference following the Patriots' first training camp practice on Wednesday. “This is a really, really unique situation with [Hopkins and Cook hitting free agency]. You don’t typically have players of this caliber available at this time. The contracts that are signed for players right now are nowhere near in the neighborhood of the contracts that these players are generally expected to sign. Usually, these are all minimum guys…This is a unique situation and in any unique situation, I think everybody evaluates and looks at Dalvin. We saw first hand at Minnesota on Thanksgiving … Dalvin Cook's game and what he can do.”

The Patriots have been linked to Cook before they lost on the Hopkins sweepstakes, with Cook even showing interest in joining the team on social media in June. An AFC East coach revealed to Fox Sports' Henry McKenna last week that sweepstakes for Cook are actually down the Patriots, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.

New England has also shown recent interest in other running backs. It hosted both Leonard Fournette and Darrell Henderson Jr. for workouts last week though a deal isn't imminent with either player, ESPN's Mike Reiss reported Sunday.

The Patriots' interest in adding depth at running back isn't necessarily a surprise. They released James Robinson in June after signing him in March and haven't replaced him yet. While Rhamondre Stevenson is expected to be their No. 1 running back again, they lack notable depth at the position with veterans who haven't seen the field much recently (Ty Mongtomery and J.J. Taylor) or second-year players that are unknowns (Pierre Strong Jr. and Kevin Harris).

In addition to confirming the Patriots' interest in Cook, Groh also shared some insight on how things went down with Hopkins, who visited the Patriots in June but opted to sign with the Tennesse Titans over a week ago.

“We explore every option that’s out there,” Groh said. “DeAndre became available pretty early on in the spring, obbviously there were reports even before he was released. We spent time working on it. We exhaust every option. We had him in here, talked to him … I know we were one of the teams mentioned that was most prevalent, but we exhausted our options and did what we thought made the most sense.”

Still, it appears the Patriots are still working on the roster with training camp underway. And Groh will keep looking to improve the team.