Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Cook’s dazzling touchdown run in exhibition play was a hopeful glimpse of what the Vikings running back can do if healthy on more a consistent basis this season.
As the Vikings prepare to open the 2019 regular season, Cook will be counted upon to carry the load in a Minnesota run game that endured ups and downs in 2018.
The same can be said for Cook’s career thus far, as the running back has played in 15 of 32 possible games since being a second-round pick in 2017.
He missed the majority of his rookie season with an ACL injury and then was limited to 11 games in 2018 with a nagging hamstring injury.
When healthy, Cook has proven he can be a game-changer in Purple, as evident by the first three games of his career, in which he had 61 carries for 288 yards (4.7 yards per attempt) to go along with a touchdown run.
There was also his impressive 70-yard run against the Lions in Week 9 of the 2018 season, not to mention his eye-popping performance in Week 15 at home against Miami, where Cook ran for a career-high 136 yards and added two scores on just 19 carries.
As Cook enters his third season in the NFL, he’s ready for whatever workload the Vikings have in store for him.
“I was brought here to do a job, and that job is to carry the football as many times as they want to hand it to me,” Cook said. “Injuries happen, ups and downs happen in people’s career … and I was unfortunate enough to be one of those guys … I had some injuries and the bumps in the road.
“But now I’m having fun and back to being me,” Cook added. “However many times Kirk [Cousins] hands me that football, I’m going to show up and run it as hard as I can.”