Fantasy Football 2018: Expectations for sophomore running backs

Dalvin Cook

Dalvin Cook easily had the potential to do what other classmates accomplished had it not been for a torn ACL in Week 4 of last season. Although he was no Adrian Peterson, the small sample size we saw from Cook was enough to sell us on his comeback in 2018. Along with breaking Peterson’s record for the Vikings rookie debut rushing record, Cook was on pace for 296 carries with 1,416 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground, which would have been good enough to earn him the Offensive Rookie of the Year honors that Alvin Kamara nabbed.

Obviously, we must take these projections with a few grains of salt. Trends come and go in the league, and that includes the level a player performs at. It is to be assumed that Cook won’t become some un-stoppable force, and at some point, he would have been held in-check. These numbers also aren’t accounting for defensive coordinators having more film to break Cook’s game down to formulate a game-plan to stop him.

Yet the hype around Cook can be described as mellow. Cook, for injury reasons, is not being mentioned with his classmates, yet fantasy owners around every corner of the world covet him. Is this a plot to try to get him as a steal in drafts? Perhaps, but let’s not put our tin-foil hats on quite yet.

The major concern is how Cook will comeback from a previously torn ACL. I’ve seen some in the fantasy community equate the situation to Peterson’s torn ACL, where a year later he came back and rushed for over 2,000 yards. Please note that Peterson is in every sense a freak of human nature, and it’s not reasonable to set the bar to those levels. However, surgery earlier in the process went successful for Cook, and seems to have no set-backs in sight for 2018.

So what’s in store for Cook’s 2018 campaign? The Vikings are reloaded and ready to make another deep playoff run thanks to the arrival of quarterback Kirk Cousins. Cousins, considerably better than Case Keenum/Sam Bradford, should operate the Vikings offense much more efficiently than the small sample size Cook was able to play in. However, Cook lost offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur this offseason, only adding to the clouds of how 2018 will play out.

Although there’s still too many questions to 100 percent believe Cook will live up to the hype, the upside just might be too good to not believe.

2018 ADP: No. 13 overall pick
2018 expectations: 1,150 rushing yards, 7 touchdowns, 36 receptions, 2 touchdowns