06-14-2018, 04:05 PM
Mike Zimmer had plenty of previous experience in press conferences pertaining serious knee injuries, but on October 2, 2017, the weight of the recent past was visible. That day, Zimmer looked down toward at podium and made it official: Dalvin Cook’s ACL was torn and he would miss the entire 2017 season.Just over a year before his agonizing announcement, Zimmer gripped the same lectern and told the media that Teddy Bridgewater had suffered an injury so severe it required an ambulance at Winter Park. Cook had been a bright spot through the previous three weeks, which had included two losses and countless questions from all angles about Sam Bradford’s knee injury. Now the offense’s centerpiece was gone for the year.
“I talked to [Cook] after the game. I saw him this morning for a minute. He’s a great kid. Extremely impressed with everything he’s done to this point,” Zimmer said. “It’s obviously a terrible thing for him, and for us, but we’ll move forward.”
The Vikings went out on a limb trading up to select Florida State’s all-time leading rusher in the second round. Concerns about people from his past kept Cook out of the first round and put the Vikings under the microscope for their “high risk” move. He quickly justified their investment by winning the starting job in a landslide over two proven backs, and then rushing 74 times for 354 yards and catching 11 passes for 90 yards over the first three-and-three-quarters games.
At home against the Detroit Lions, Cook was carrying the Vikings’ offense with 66 yards on just 13 carries. With 10:35 remaining in the third quarter, he bolted through a hole into the second level. When Cook dug in for a sharp cut, his knee buckled and that was that.
Running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu was the first one to meet him when he got to the sideline.
“It was shocking, he was having such a good game, the excitement every time he touched the ball was electrifying,” Polamalu said, standing on the sun-drenched field at TCO Performance Center last Wednesday.
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/0...k-stardom/
“I talked to [Cook] after the game. I saw him this morning for a minute. He’s a great kid. Extremely impressed with everything he’s done to this point,” Zimmer said. “It’s obviously a terrible thing for him, and for us, but we’ll move forward.”
The Vikings went out on a limb trading up to select Florida State’s all-time leading rusher in the second round. Concerns about people from his past kept Cook out of the first round and put the Vikings under the microscope for their “high risk” move. He quickly justified their investment by winning the starting job in a landslide over two proven backs, and then rushing 74 times for 354 yards and catching 11 passes for 90 yards over the first three-and-three-quarters games.
At home against the Detroit Lions, Cook was carrying the Vikings’ offense with 66 yards on just 13 carries. With 10:35 remaining in the third quarter, he bolted through a hole into the second level. When Cook dug in for a sharp cut, his knee buckled and that was that.
Running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu was the first one to meet him when he got to the sideline.
“It was shocking, he was having such a good game, the excitement every time he touched the ball was electrifying,” Polamalu said, standing on the sun-drenched field at TCO Performance Center last Wednesday.
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/0...k-stardom/
