Dalvin Cook undergoes shoulder surgery

While most of us are out and about making some sort of Valentine’s Day preparations, one of the Minnesota Vikings’ stars went under the knife instead.

Running back Dalvin Cook reportedly had shoulder surgery on Tuesday to fix an injury that he’s, apparently, been dealing with since 2019.

Cook was named to his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl this past season after putting up 1,173 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. He didn’t miss any games this past season, marking the first time in his NFL career that he’s appeared in all of the Vikings’ games in a season.

Looking back at Cook’s injury history, in 2019 he was slowed towards the end of the season with what was labeled as a chest injury, including missing one game, but put up 94 yards in the Vikings’ playoff win over New Orleans. He also suffered a dislocated shoulder back in 2021, but came back on a short week to put up over 200 yards on the ground in a Thursday Night Football win over Pittsburgh at U.S. Bank Stadium. On top of that, he apparently dislocated his shoulder in Week 3 this past season but, again, didn’t miss any games.

The Vikings have said that Cook’s surgery was successful and that he is expected to make a full recovery before the start of the regular season.

Cook’s potential status with the Vikings for 2023 has been the subject of some conversation, given that he’s scheduled to have a $14 million cap hit for a team that looks like they could potentially be in for some cap issues. The fact that the team has said he’ll be ready for the start of the season could mean that they’ve already made those decisions on him, but at this point I’m not sure how much to read into that.