The Minnesota Vikings are expected to officially release Dalvin Cook on Friday if they cannot trade him on Thursday. The Denver Broncos need to be all over this move. I'm not sure there is a better fit for Dalvin Cook's new team than the Denver Broncos.
News broke on Thursday morning that the team plans on moving on from the four-time Pro Bowl running back, but that they'll try one last time to trade him on Thursday. Divorce seemed inevitable and it seems as if the divorce papers will be finalized by the end of the week.
Adam Schefter also reported that both the Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins are expected to have interest in Cook, along with other teams, surely, but his naming the Broncos and Dolphins like that indicates to me that those will be the teams who have the most interest in the player.
The Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos are two of the teams that are expected to have an interest in signing running back Dalvin Cook once he officially is released, per sources. There likely will be others, but those two have been monitoring Cook for weeks.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 8, 2023
Let's dive into three reasons why the Broncos need to sign Cook.
3 reasons why the Denver Broncos need to sign Dalvin Cook
1. The Broncos have a need at running back
I think a lot of us were shocked to see Javonte Williams out there during OTAs moving around like he was. His major knee injury at the beginning of the 2022 season seemed to put a dark cloud on his 2023 season. For a while there, it seemed like Williams was going to miss a significant part of the 2023 season, but as of now, it does look like he could return for week one.
However, just because Williams might be healthy enough to return for week one, does not mean he'll be 100%, right? I can only imagine how much wear and tear are put on the knees of running backs in the NFL, who have the shortest shelf life of perhaps any position in professional sports.
The last thing I'd want to see is Williams returning before he should and only further hurting himself. Dalvin Cook is coming off four straight years of at least 1,100 rushing yards, so he's still very productive and has always been.
He could easily form a nice one-two punch with Samaje Perine while Javonte Williams gets as healthy as reasonably possible.