Dalvin Cook....worth Christian McCaffrey money?
 

Thoughts?


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dalvin Cook has been playing the waiting game for an extension for months and without resolution as the offseason program progresses, Cook&#39;s decision to sit out the remainder until he gets a new deal shouldn&#39;t surprise anyone. From sources I&#39;ve spoken with in recent weeks</p>&mdash; Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyRCronin/status/1270113904816017416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">and in time following the draft, the reason for an impasse in negotiations is over the number Cook is looking for. Sources have told me the ideal figure is north of what Christian McCaffrey is making ($16 mill/year), but it does not seem the Vikings want/can be in that ballpark.</p>&mdash; Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtneyRCronin/status/1270113905759617025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

When you pay a middle of the pack qb, elite qb money. You can’t afford a top of the line rb.

No

I say no.
And really, McCaffrey isn't worth McCaffrey $. IMO of course.

I think he picked the absolute worst year to have a holdout. He's only played three seasons and in two of those seasons he's missed significant time with leg injuries. Although he started fast in 2019, he ended up 10th for the rushing title. Also you're coming off a SuperBowl where the two starting RBs were pulled off the pile and will be making, combined, less than $4.5 million in salary in 2020. This is a year too early for him to be holding out for a new contract, AND if he holds out he'll miss more time to prove he's worth that big contract so two our of his first four seasons will be missed due to injury and an overinflated sense of self worth. No deal.

Teicher probably thinks so.

Cook has no leverage here

no.

I really feel bad for RBs. They take more abuse than any other position, but that abuse then means that their longevity doesn't make them worth paying a big second contract.

So no, Cook isn't worth it. I feel bad that he's not though.

Well, they are pretty easy to replace, too. You don't really need a special running back if you have a good line or a decent offense overall. There's not that much difference to a team in the end between an average RB and one of the better ones.

Nope

This generation witnessed probably the golden age for NFL RBs in the 2000s. A lot of these dudes were probably 5-10 years old watching Priest Holmes, LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander, Jamal Lewis, Tiki Barber, Ahman Green, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, etc own the league.

And when they get their shot, the RB position is basically an afterthought.

The problem is that there ISN'T an era where he'd be considered the most valuable RB in football.

Dude can't stay on the field. And he's good when he's there, but all too often he just isn't. And even when he is, does he really scare you as much as some of the other 'top tier' backs in the league?

It's just an absolutely ludicrous demand by him and I suspect his representation realizes that. If he wants anything approaching $16 million (hell, if he wants $30 million over the first 3 years) he'll be sitting out.

You cannot give a back who's fringe top 5, when healthy, a top of the market contract when he's NEVER healthy.

No, you don't really want to pay a RB that much money anyway. Cook isn't as durable either.

Did you eat paint chips as a kid? You literally seem like you know nothing about football

Yeah the NFL should consider a separate pay structure for RB’s which includes higher rookie deals and higher guarantees.

Like you said it’s a shame that these guys take the biggest abuse and as a result are paid the least.

Why did RBs back in the day like Walter Peyton, Franco Harris, Earl Campbell, Emmitt Smith, etc seems to get more carries with less injuries?

Maybe they didn’t have as many overall touches because they rarely caught passes??

Why did posters back in the day seem to start more threads with fewer shitty ones?

Cook has played 4, 11 and 14 games respectively. He hasn't held up for an entire season yet to date.

Compare that to CMC and then review the production.

He's not the same category and the vikes should tell him to eat a bag of dicks.

Eh.

The entire NFL pay structure is based on supply and demand. There's a TON of people willing to pay a lot of money to watch football and that drives money into the system.

If that quality is poor, they won't get all that money so they only employ the best in the world. They don't pay them on the bases of the pounding they take, they pay them based on how rare they are.

Well RBs are just fungible. As noted, the SB featured two guys plucked off the scrap heap.

I see no need to start creating specialized caps for RBs because if you're gonna do that, you really have no excuse not to do one for the opposite reason for QBs as well. And if I'm any other position group I wonder why the hell my earnings are being reduced by not having a special tier for me.

Nah - if you want to be paid more and have the ability play another position at the highest level, then do that. If not - well the market is what it is.

He's been active for 31 of the 52 games he's been a Viking. In other words, no.

Not really. You have a salary cap and a players union.

If it was truly supply and demand, Mahomes would make $80m at the expense of others. And undrafted free agents would play for well below the rookie minimum (because they would). Practice guys would likely play for half of what they make if that's what it took for their shot.

And in a free market, guys like Tepper, Kahn and Jerry Jones who could and likely would double or tripple their current salary expenditures.

This
Thread should have ended here.

But how does creating a RB exclusive salary scale HELP the rest of the NFLPA.

The Quarterback scale almost makes sense. And the overall cap was forced down their throats.

But a RB scale wouldn't be pursued by ownership nor would it be supported by the NFLPA.

The owners did manipulate the market with the hard cap, yes. But you've now created a market WITHIN the cap. And what you're suggesting is a a disruption of that. RBs, by virtue of their lack of scarcity, are simply not worth as much.

No, but he's probably worth Ben Stein's money!

There is so much competition too

RBs with one year left on their contract:

*Dalvin Cook
*Aaron Jones
*Derrick Henry
*Leonard Fournette
*Joe Mixon
*Alvin Kamara
*Kenyan Drake
*Todd Gurley
*James Conner
*Damien Williams
*Kareem Hunt
*Tarik Cohen
*Marlon Mack
*Chris Carson
*Jamaal Williams
*Matt Breida
*Kenyon Drake
*Derrick Henry



Cook is a moron.

I was going to try and make an argument that he's worth being paid, although the Vikings or no team should really give it to him.

But yikes, that's way too much supply. I wouldn't pay a RB shit right now.

Wow.

Dude. Read the room.

Cause the players they played against were smaller and slower.

came here for this

was not disappointed

Derrick Henry is worth twice as much.

Running backs should get their own special type of contract. Their careers are short, brutal and replaceable. They should have a higher rookie scale or something.

I haven't thought this through. It just sucks to be a running back. Dalvin Cook probably wishes he could go back in time and be a slot WR

No

A bit of a tough choice. Dalvin is so athletic and fast. McCaffrey is nearly as athletic, and so versatile, IMO.

i think I like McCaffrey more because of his versatility and elite football IQ.

So, I guess I don't think Dalvin is worth the same money, no. He's a top 6-7 RB though, so whatever that's worth.

The only list Cook lands on in the 6-7 range is games played per season.

I wasn't really thinking about a particular list (haven't even looked), but more about just how dangerous he is vs. other top RBs. What his value to his offense is, so to speak. it's obvious the Vikings offense is much less dangerous with him off the field, in fact, their offense pretty much goes through Cook.

Dalvin is the type of RB that can catch and run and score from just about anywhere. Spags thought enough of him to make Cook the focus of his scheme when we played the Vikes. That says it all for me.

Without factoring in durability, I’d agree with this post.

Unfortunately, to be paid that kind of $ in a cap league, you need to be available every game.

Agreed. Thing is, Dalvin's pretty young still. And we've all seen players have a few injury-ridden years early and then go on an extended stint without getting hurt. It is possible that Dalvin could go the next four years without getting injured. If he does, his stats will look pretty good. It's possible anyway.

But just factoring his performance, and what I think his production/performance ceiling is, he's a top 10 RB, just based on what he means to his team and how productive/dangerous he can be when he's on the field.

Agree completely. If he sits I expect Mattison to have marginally decreased production at worst and wouldn’t be surprised if it was very similar. He does that and the Vikings may make him expendable a la what he Chargers did with Gordon. He has zero leverage.

Hate to kick a guy when he's down, but Kareem Hunt did the Chiefs a favor by jettisoning himself from the team. We don't have to deal with the pressure of not paying his brainless ass. Because let's face it... he would have demanded Son of Ed money as well. And as the Chiefs proved last year, he's not ****ing worth it. No RB is.

Honestly, I think Boone is an NFL caliber player.

He was a guy I suggested the Chiefs make a trade for near cutdowns to boost their backfield depth. He plays a lot like Cook and should have success in a similar system.

In the 3 games he got double-digit carries in last season (2 starts) he went for 232 yards on 41 carries for 5.7 yards/carry with 3 touchdowns and 3 catches on 4 targets.

Cook's out of his ****ing mind. With Mattison and Boone in the wings, there's little reason for the Vikings to bring him back at ALL when his rookie deal is up. Let alone re-set the market on a deal before he even hits FA.

When healthy he is, sure.

An injury prone top 7 back is worth, what, half that figure when you can't build your offense around him or predict any kind of availability?

I'd maaaaaaybe give him an AAV at $5 million at this moment in time. Prove durability for at least one damn season and I'd be willing to maybe double that, but probably not.

There's just little in the way of market scarcity. Especially with the absolutely stacked FA class coming up.

Dalvin Cook isn't even worth Dalvin Cook money.

First, he's played in only 29 games out of a possible 48.

Now, there's a luck factor in injuries, so if you want to believe that he'll come back we can look at 2019, which is his best season. (He only missed two games.) In that season, he was 6th among running backs in yards from scrimmage, so that's pretty good. He was 9th in rushing yards. But he was 17th in yards per rush (among players with 100+ rushes).

For his career, he's 12th in yards per rush among running backs with 300+ attempts in the 2017-2019 time frame. And because of the injuries, he's 16th in yards from scrimmage.

Seems pretty replaceable to me.