Cooked? - Dalvin Cook Released (now a Jet!)

My last post was a joke, and FTR I have no idea how effective McBride will be running the ball for us.....he just got here.    

We're gonna find out shortly what our RBs bring to the offense. It's a new year and I'm betting O'Connell and his staff have been working on ways to get the best out of these RBs. We might be in for a few surprises.

I was going to bring that up but then realized it could possibly turn this thread into a senseless argument with tons of stats, graphs, metrics.....etc  (puke)

Like all RBs that come into the NFL, McBride will be asked to catch the ball AND pass-block. He either sinks or swims. 

Same here.  

You look across the river and see a similar situation playing out in Wisconsin as you have going on here. The Packers moved on from a player who likely would have improved their chances of winning this season but not next, to pick up assets, after decades of strong play at that position. Fans are okay with the move because they forget what not having a HOF QB is like.

Here in MN, we are moving on from a RB to pick up assets (cap space), despite it decreasing our chances of winning this season. Like GB with QB, we have been spoiled at the RB position, going from Robert Smith, to AP to Dalvin Cook and have only had to live through mediocre to bad RB play a few seasons inbetween Smith and AP, and then again when AP and Cook got hurt.

Both franchises are likely doing the right thing. Neither team has a realistic chance at the SB even with their stars, and both Rodgers and Cook are most likely on a serious decline or retired after this season anyway. The franchise will be better long term because of the moves they made and while it is a tough pill to swallow in the short term, meaningless regular season wins are just that.

Where GB has the advantage here is in who will be replacing their star. Love might suck, but a 1st round pick who got to sit and learn from the best for years is the best case scenario for replacing your HOF QB. Mattison is just about the worst case scenario for replacing Cook, and we all better hope the Vikings were okay with moving on from Cook because Chandler has impressed them and not because they are okay with Mattison and his sub 4 YPA.

One thing that has puzzled me, tho, is....Dalvin had shoulder surgery to repair his labrum and has said his shoulder feels better than it has in years. That injury was late in the 2019 season...so why hadn't he had this surgery before? He said he'd been attacking holes differently, even avoiding contact sometimes to protect it...so why not repair it years ago?

I can't speak to why he didn't take care of it in the past. There are risks to surgery, so I think to some extent I can respect not doing it... I do think this one was to guarantee his 2M this offseason. That's a bit self-serving, but I can understand that to some extent. I don't think it was smart to wait to do that, as I'd argue it likely has impacted his play the last couple seasons and was certainly a part of the team's reasoning in their decision here.

unless of course there is another side to this in that this was a short term fix and that the long term consequence is that the surgery will increase this problem long term. In that scenario, Cook has effectively capped his career length... but obviously that would never come out publicly.  But it would explain the delay to some extent.