MLB Best Bets – Free (Wednesday 5/15)
Josh Gross
Only a few hours after Ezekiel Elliott found a new job, former Minnesota Vikings RB Dalvin Cook did so as well, reportedly signing a one-year deal with the New York Jets, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Cook, who turned 28 Thursday, spent his first six career seasons with the Vikings before the team cut him loose in June. He’s made each of the last four Pro Bowls, with at least 1,100 rushing yards in each of the four years. His best season was 2020, when Cook ran for 1,557 yards and 16 touchdowns and added 361 yards and a score through the air, coming up 82 yards of a 2,000-yard season. He was RB2 in PPR that season. He fell to RB16 in 2021, missing four games, and climbed back to RB11 in 2022.
Cook had a career-low 4.4 yards per attempt in 2022. He only had four games of 20-plus PPR points, a far cry from the eight such games he put up in 2020 (despite three fewer games played).
Dalvin Cook Joins Breece Hall, Jets; Fantasy Reaction
In New York, Cook might be the RB1 to start the season if Breece Hall isn’t ready to go or the Jets want to ease him back into game action after his 2022 torn ACL. Either way, it’s a crowded backfield in New York, with Hall, Cook, Michael Carter, Zonovan Knight and rookie fifth-rounder Israel Abanikanda.
The Cook signing would give the Jets cover to stash Hall on the PUP list to start the season, buying some time for the second-year back to get even healthier while they evaluate the other backs to see who goes to the practice squad or is cut. Alternatively, if Hall is ready to go, we might see Abanikanda relegated to a practice squad role out of the gate, though the team does seem interested in giving him a shot.
Even after a rookie season that featured 681 yards and an RB7 rank in PPR before a Week 7 torn ACL, the chances Hall takes a backseat to Cook or doesn’t play early in the season now that the veteran is in town make it hard to sell Hall at his current ADP of RB13. The Cook signing casts enough uncertainty around his immediate future — even if there is very little question that Hall is the multi-year answer in New York — that he has to slide down to at least the back end of the RB2 ranks for the time being.
Meanwhile, even as a man without a team, Cook has been sitting in the flex area of drafts all along, currently RB27. It’s hard to argue he should be any higher than that now that he has a team, given few would argue he’s the long-term best back on the Jets. Cook is a low-upside pick in the late 20s at the position unless we get word Hall will miss a somewhat significant chunk of the season. The Jets wouldn’t sign the veteran if they didn’t plan to use him, but it’s also hard to imagine them not relying on the 2022 rookie who was so electric. Ultimately, this signing could be good for the Jets as a franchise, but the fantasy situation is now extremely murky.
