The Dalvin Cook experiment hasn’t gone as well as many would have hoped for the New York Jets this season.
Since signing with the team in late August to a one-year, $7 million deal, the Jets have struggled to find a consistent role for the former Viking. Those struggles seem to be boiling over for the four-time Pro-Bowler too.
“Of course it’s frustrating,” Cook said Thursday. “I’m an honest person. I work. I want to play. And, yeah, it’s frustrating. It’s new for me. I come from getting the ball 20 times a game, or however many times. Of course, it’s frustrating. It’s something that I’ve been adapting to.”
Cook was expected to be part of a two-headed running back room with Breece Hall and an improved offensive line. While Hall has certainly taken off a year removed from his ACL injury (6.5 yards per attempt), Cook has struggled to make an impact on Gang Green’s offensive roster.
Among active running backs, Cook’s 2.8 yards per carry average is the worst among running backs with over 35 carries this season. He hasn’t had a run longer than 10 yards and is coming off a three-carry game against the Philadelphia Eagles two weeks ago.
“We all thought it was going to be more than what it is,” Cook explained. “But I wasn’t thinking of a percentage of him getting the ball or me getting the ball. I wasn’t thinking like that. I just thought … the touches will get spread around.”
New York doesn’t appear to be ready to give up on Cook just under a week away from the NFL Trade Deadline. Head coach Robert Saleh commended Cook’s professionalism this week and said the back is “getting his legs underneath him and I do think he’s running better with more violence, and looking more like himself.”
Regardless of the veteran running back’s wishes to get more playing time, the Jets need to do what is best for their offense as they reach the midway point of the 2023 NFL season. At 3-3, New York has an opportunity to make a major play for a playoff spot in a loaded AFC.
That could leave a player like Cook expendable. If the Jets were to move the former Viking, it wouldn’t just mean cutting a signing that hasn’t worked out loose, but also giving him a potential change of scenery that he may be looking for at this time.
While he has not officially asked for a trade at this time, the former Florida State product understands that what happens over the next few weeks may not be entirely in his control.
“It’s something I can’t control, that my name is being floated around in trade rumors,” he stated. “It might be a good thing. Maybe [it’s] a bad thing.”
Gang Green has a few more days to determine whether or not their high-priced runner is someone they should keep for the stretch run of their season. Their upcoming game against the New York Giants could certainly help in determining just how much Cook has left in the tank, though.
