Dalvin Cook could play limited snaps against Lions

In the 2016 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings made Dalvin Cook the centerpiece of that year’s class, taking him in the second round with the 41st overall selection. In the 28 games that the Vikings have played since then (counting postseason contests), Cook has been available for just seven of those games, owing to a knee injury that cost him much of his rookie season and a hamstring injury that has hampered him this year. However, that might be set to change on Sunday when the Vikings host the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.

According to numerous sources on social media, Cook might be making his return to the field this week. If he does so, he will be playing a limited number of snaps.

Of course, that was originally the plan for Cook leading up to the Week 6 game against the Arizona Cardinals as well. Cook actually had some full participation practice in the week leading up to the Cardinals game, but after going through pregame warmups, he was scratched once again. Unless I missed some reports, there wasn’t any consideration give to making him active in Week 7 or Week 8, either.

Cook suffered his hamstring injury in overtime of the Week 2 tie against the Packers, and has not actually been on the field since the first half of the Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He was on a set snap count for that game, too, and did not play in the second half.

In Cook’s absence, Latavius Murray has done a respectable job helping the Vikings establish a running game, but it would be nice to see Cook back out on the field and making an impact again.

We’ll have to see how this shakes out. Personally, I’m not going to believe he’s playing until he’s actually out there standing next to Kirk Cousins in the Vikings’ backfield.