Running back Dalvin Cook is sure to be heavily featured in the Minnesota Vikings' offense in 2020, with or without a contract extension in place.
Nevertheless, the 24-year-old Florida State product can expect to be rewarded if all goes according to general manager Rick Spielman's plan.
“We believe in paying our own players,” G.M. Rick Spielman said recently on the #PFTPM podcast. “Those are the guys that we develop, we know them the best, we know where they are from a work ethic standpoint, we know what type of players they are, but we also know how much they mean to our community and how involved they are. And Dalvin checks all those boxes. He is a very good football player, but he is even a better human being. So we take the whole picture in and how philosophy and history has been, develop them, and hopefully we are drafting well enough we have to give long-term extensions to guys that have come in and helped us win ball games and fit everything we are looking for and build our culture.
“[W]e felt very confident in taking him [in the 2017 draft]. Not just because he was a great player, but because what he stood for as a human being, and all of those things and all of the resources and all of the research that we have done on him came true, and he is one of the leaders in the community he is always out front, he is always contributing in different ways.”
Cook missed 17 games between his first two NFL seasons with the Vikings after the NFC North franchise plucked him in the 2017 draft with the 41st overall pick, but his 14-game 2019 season pointed towards big contributions in the future. Cook rushed for 1,135 yards on 250 carries, scoring 13 touchdowns last season en route to his first Pro-Bowl selection.
As he enters the final year of his rookie contract with the Vikings, Cook could see an extension with the club, and according to Spielman, the running back “checks all [the] boxes” to be on the receiving end of a new deal.
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