Report: Dalvin Cook to be active for Thursday Night Football

UPDATE: Adam Schefter seeming confirms that Cook is starting tonight and that he will have his “regular workload” despite playing with a shoulder harness.

When Minnesota Vikings’ running back Dalvin Cook needed to be carted off of the field at Levi’s Stadium near the end of the team’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers, most fans. . .myself included. . .just assumed that he was going to miss at least a couple of games, given that the Vikings had a short turn-around to play on Thursday Night Football coming.

Well, Cook did miss the Vikings’ loss in Detroit last week and, if the reports are to be believed, that’s going to be it.

Numerous reports have surfaced that tests done on Cook’s injured shoulder have yielded favorable results and that he will be active for tonight’s Thursday Night Football contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Personally, I’m not sure how wise a move this is. Yes, tonight’s game is a must-win game. . .sort of like every other game the Vikings have played since Week 2. But all of the games after this are going to be “must-win” as well, and now the Vikings are running the risk of not having Cook available for any of those games should he make his shoulder injury worse. The team would probably be better served taking the mini-bye between tonight’s game and their annual trip to Soldier Field in 11 days to give him some more time.

But, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to do that, and those folks are a lot closer to the situation than I am, so there you go.

If Cook is active tonight, I think there’s going to be much more of a timeshare with Alexander Mattison than there ordinarily might be if Cook was 100%, but we’ll have to see how the Vikings play this.

Once again, all indications are that the Vikings are going to have Dalvin Cook active and in the lineup when they take on the Steelers on Thursday Night Football this evening.