Will We See Dalvin Cook On Kick Returns?

We are getting closer and closer to the start of Training Camp for the Minnesota Vikings, and yesterday something came across the Twitter machine that definitely had me doing a double take, thanks to our friends at SiriusXM NFL Radio.

I’m not sure how much this has actually be discussed at Winter Park, but I think you can firmly put me in the “I hope not” crowd when it comes to the prospect of Dalvin Cook serving as the team’s kickoff returner.

Cook, sooner rather than later, is going to be one of the focal points of the Minnesota offense, if not the main focal point. At this point, he is not expendable. Not to throw any shade at any of the other players on the roster, but the Vikings have lots of other guys that could potentially take Cordarrelle Patterson’s spot on kick returns. As it stands right now, none of the other players that could potentially be put in that spot are as vital to this team’s success as Dalvin Cook is.

Yes, I know that Adrian Peterson returned some kickoffs as a rookie (16 of them, to be exact). I didn’t much care for that idea, either, for much the same reason. The team obviously feels that there are great things in store for Cook, particularly in Pat Shurmur’s system, and there’s no reason to jeopardize that by sending Cook back to return kickoffs, in my opinion.

Again, I’m not sure what the odds of this actually happening are, but apparently it’s at least been discussed.