Dalvin Cook released by Jets

[MDDawg]

I think he'll be an upgrade to Pierre Strong, plus he has a relationship with Stefanski.

[syd]

what happened to that dude ? He was da shit in Minnesota 

[bbedward]

I think they’re just doing him a favor so he has a chance to join a contender. RBs don’t have long careers

[nickers]

Snag him up NOW!

[syd]

The Cleveland Browns are thinking about the NFL playoffs while most other teams are focused on Week 18 of the 2023 NFL regular season. Such is the beauty of clinching a playoff spot a week early.

The Browns season has been haunted by injury after injury starting with OL Jack Conklin and RB Nick Chubb in the first two weeks. While the team has pushed on to an 11-5 record and a playoff spot, the rushing attack hasn’t been the same without Chubb (and the team’s top three tackles).

RB Jerome Ford leads the team with 807 yards rushing but a low 4.0 yards per carry average.

As luck would have it, veteran RB Dalvin Cook is now available and, potentially, a fit for Cleveland’s needs. The veteran was so desperate to leave the New York Jets that he forfeit guaranteed salary for Week 18:

Cook has not been good this year with limited carries (67 carries, 214 yards, 0 TDs) but rushed for over 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns last year with the Minnesota Vikings.

Browns HC Kevin Stefanski was with the Vikings when they drafted Cook in the second round as was the team’s offensive coordinator for the running back’s first 1,000-yard season in 2019.

With the NFL trade deadline completed months ago, Cook must either make it through waivers for Cleveland to claim him or clear waivers and choose to sign with the Browns for a reunion with Stefanski to occur.

[hoorta]

1 minute ago, syd said:

Cook has not been good this year with limited carries (67 carries, 214 yards, 0 TDs) but rushed for over 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns last year with the Minnesota Vikings.

Browns HC Kevin Stefanski was with the Vikings when they drafted Cook in the second round as was the team’s offensive coordinator for the running back’s first 1,000-yard season in 2019.

With the NFL trade deadline completed months ago, Cook must either make it through waivers for Cleveland to claim him or clear waivers and choose to sign with the Browns for a reunion with Stefanski to occur.

His stats this year are in a word... LOUSY...  

MHO he's no upgrade over Strong or Hunt.  Last year is last year...  Ya know, Kareem led the league in rushing a few years back...  

[Canton Dawg]

1 hour ago, hoorta said:

Ya know, Kareem led the league in rushing a few years back...  

Yeah, but any RB on the roster behind Chubb aren’t going to get the same amount of touches.

[bbedward]

The people who want cook who do we clear to make room for him? Probably don’t wanna run 4 RBs on the roster. Ford and Hunt aren’t losing spots, and neither is Strong since he’s a huge part of the special teams.

Just don’t think there’s anything for us to gain from him, he’s not the guy he was a few years ago.

[hoorta]

3 hours ago, Canton Dawg said:

Yeah, but any RB on the roster behind Chubb aren’t going to get the same amount of touches.

Then the question is..  Why couldn't Cook beat out Breece Hall for the #1 RB spot?  I'm not buying the Jets were so dumb to essentially bench Cook out of spite. FWIW, Hall is averaging a full YPC more than Dalvin behind the same OL.   

This could be a similar situation (diminished skills falling off of a cliff) as our Kareem Hunt, who was sitting by the phone until the Browns sent out the Bat Signal when Chubb blew out his knee.  

[Canton Dawg]

47 minutes ago, hoorta said:

Then the question is..  Why couldn't Cook beat out Breece Hall for the #1 RB spot?  I'm not buying the Jets were so dumb to essentially bench Cook out of spite. FWIW, Hall is averaging a full YPC more than Dalvin behind the same OL.   

This could be a similar situation (diminished skills falling off of a cliff) as our Kareem Hunt, who was sitting by the phone until the Browns sent out the Bat Signal when Chubb blew out his knee.  

I think the question is twofold:

1) Is Cook an improvement over an existing RB on the roster?

2) If he is, can he be squeezed into the salary cap?

[hoorta]

1 hour ago, Canton Dawg said:

I think the question is twofold:

1) Is Cook an improvement over an existing RB on the roster?

2) If he is, can he be squeezed into the salary cap?

 My POV...  The answers are no and no. We're not demoting any of our guys... Ford, Hunt, or Strong for a guy just a lookin' for a home whose production nose dived. 

Cook's 3.2 ypc is marginally better than Hunt's 3.0. but I doubt Berry is interested in bringing in a marginal talent for negligible improvement on the roster. We're NOT cutting Hunt (who knows the playbook and is a terror on short yardage) for a guy off the street.  

Really, this Cook love is almost as bad as some guys thinking we should give the (now pretty washed up) Jarvis Landry a ring.  🙄

[Korsou Dawg]

I'd much, MUCH prefer adding an O-lineman for the play-offs. That helps all our current backs, including Joe!

[bbedward]

6 hours ago, hoorta said:

 My POV...  The answers are no and no. We're not demoting any of our guys... Ford, Hunt, or Strong for a guy just a lookin' for a home whose production nose dived. 

Cook's 3.2 ypc is marginally better than Hunt's 3.0. but I doubt Berry is interested in bringing in a marginal talent for negligible improvement on the roster. We're NOT cutting Hunt (who knows the playbook and is a terror on short yardage) for a guy off the street.  

Really, this Cook love is almost as bad as some guys thinking we should give the (now pretty washed up) Jarvis Landry a ring.  🙄

I’d be happier with a Landry signing than a Cook one tbh, our guys besides Cooper and Moore and Njoku have pretty pathetic numbers, and old Landry could give us a couple big first down catches or something, or somebody else doesn’t have to be him (Rashard Higgins?)

[Dutch Oven]

Thank goodness Kevin is comfortable including TEs in his passing game, because this is a paper-thin WR room now without Moore, who most of the season wasn't much of a factor. 

The Browns need to improve the WR unit this coming offseason. Tillman is definitely a work in progress, Bell is a candidate to get cut in training camp, and Moore really should be the #3 option. 

[Flugel]

1 hour ago, Dutch Oven said:

Thank goodness Kevin is comfortable including TEs in his passing game, because this is a paper-thin WR room now without Moore, who most of the season wasn't much of a factor. 

The Browns need to improve the WR unit this coming offseason. Tillman is definitely a work in progress, Bell is a candidate to get cut in training camp, and Moore really should be the #3 option. 

True. That said, he had no choice but to become comfortable using the TEs after we ran out of starters at the WR position.  Once Moore left the game, Sauce started covering Njoku and that cooled Njoku's success down.  I'm not gonna get too down on Tillman because 2-3 weeks ago he made some big catches to keep drives alive.  He can still help us IMO.  If we had a veteran QB like Flacco earlier on (instead of DTR/PJ Walker) - some of our young backup/situational WRs would be further along in their development.

If all the starters rest this week, nothing PJ Walker can/will do is going to benefit the WRs learning curve.  The passing game is a chaotic mess when Walker plays.  I feel bad putting the guy down because I like his attitude and willingness; but he's still going to get out of the pocket and throw back into the middle of the field into traffic inviting the picks.  In saying all that, this reality plus an injury to DTR became the REASONS we're celebrating a Joe Flacco success story the last 4-5 weeks...

Edited January 3 by Flugel

[Flugel]

10 hours ago, hoorta said:

Then the question is..  Why couldn't Cook beat out Breece Hall for the #1 RB spot?  I'm not buying the Jets were so dumb to essentially bench Cook out of spite. FWIW, Hall is averaging a full YPC more than Dalvin behind the same OL.   

This could be a similar situation (diminished skills falling off of a cliff) as our Kareem Hunt, who was sitting by the phone until the Browns sent out the Bat Signal when Chubb blew out his knee.  

Yeah I hear ya Larry.  And then there's how wonderfully that OL was at protecting Aaron Rodgers - shrinking his season to 4 snaps.  Cook wasn't brought there to beat out Breece Hall - he was brought there in case Hall gets injured again running behind that line.  We're better off just keeping Hunt at this time.

[Flugel]

3 hours ago, Korsou Dawg said:

I'd much, MUCH prefer adding an O-lineman for the play-offs. That helps all our current backs, including Joe!

Me too KD!  The trouble is - what OL worthy of helping a playoff team are unemployed right now?  On the other hand, there may be some promising practice squad guys we could give this type of opportunity to.

[bbedward]

1 hour ago, Flugel said:

Me too KD!  The trouble is - what OL worthy of helping a playoff team are unemployed right now?  On the other hand, there may be some promising practice squad guys we could give this type of opportunity to.

Well we did just sign a vet guard for depth apparently:

 

[tiamat63]

 Any late push should be Oline first.  That having been said, Dalvin would be as close to plug n play as you'd get.  He would have a great knowledge of the offensive structure, language, pass pro sets, etc etc.    The downside would be building chemistry as a runner behind an Oline unfamiliar to him. 

 

 Anyone know what his fumble rate is? 

[jrb12711]

Put simply, I don't see why he'd get reps over any of the guys in Ford, Hunt, or Strong. Don't forget that Pierre is on the special teams unit and unless I'm sorely mistaken Dalvin ain't lining up for kickoffs. I personally also think Strong in limited action has looked pretty decent.

The only scenario to me that makes logical sense to me is if they believe in the 2ish weeks Cook provides an upgrade over Hunt, which I don't see personally. I suppose if he'd be willing to sign to the PS it'd be a super good upgrade if someone goes down, but I doubt that what's he looking for.

[Flugel]

3 hours ago, bbedward said:

Well we did just sign a vet guard for depth apparently:

 

Thanks for the update!   It can't hurt.  We can really use experienced depth on the OL..

[tiamat63]

To answer my own question - Browns have the 3rd most fumbles per game. DC has two lost on 67 carries.  Or 1 per 33.5 which would put him towards the league bottom. 

For comparison, Joe Mixon has almost 4 times the carries and zero fumbles. 

 

Yeah.... Hard pass.  We have enough RBs that struggle holding onto the rock as is. 

[bbedward]

Anytime one of these names comes up people always remember their best seasons but not their most recent ones for some reason. I guess the same would be true for Landry, who worked out for teams and failed to make a roster.

It seemed the same with Shaquille Leonard when the colts dropped him, except going to Philly seemed to give him some kind of resurgence.

[syd]

5 hours ago, tiamat63 said:

Any late push should be Oline first.  That having been said, Dalvin would be as close to plug n play as you'd get.  He would have a great knowledge of the offensive structure, language, pass pro sets, etc etc.    The downside would be building chemistry as a runner behind an Oline unfamiliar to him

if Moore can;t go I would bring cook to play in the slot (and yes over Landry )

[Korsou Dawg]

20 hours ago, Flugel said:

Me too KD!  The trouble is - what OL worthy of helping a playoff team are unemployed right now?  On the other hand, there may be some promising practice squad guys we could give this type of opportunity to.

It's not like most of us saw Cook's release coming. Maybe another team cuts a O-lineman to save cap space? If that doesn't happen, we are better off saving ours for the post-season.

10 hours ago, syd said:

if Moore can;t go I would bring cook to play in the slot (and yes over Landry )

Landry is retired. He is just in denial about that. 

[gumby73]

 just not seeing much of a upgrade over what Strong has given this team. Ford & Hunt is what makes this engine go !

What interest me? Is Dallas ahead of Browns on the Waiver Wire at this time ? Adding Cook this late shouldn't cost much

[Flugel]

16 hours ago, tiamat63 said:

To answer my own question - Browns have the 3rd most fumbles per game. DC has two lost on 67 carries.  Or 1 per 33.5 which would put him towards the league bottom. 

For comparison, Joe Mixon has almost 4 times the carries and zero fumbles. 

 

Yeah.... Hard pass.  We have enough RBs that struggle holding onto the rock as is. 

In one of our last game day threads @jiggins7919 made a good point along the line of how Cleveland's ball-carriers/Receivers were holding the ball away from their body just inviting fumbles. This was a great point because they do this a lot; and don't think for a second defenses in the playoffs won't be game planning to exploit this. To your very 1st point above, opposing defenses exploited this against the Browns in the regular season. That's my biggest worry on offense heading into the playoffs outside of knowing we can't afford to lose Cooper for any of the matchups ahead.

[Flugel]

12 hours ago, syd said:

if Moore can;t go I would bring cook to play in the slot (and yes over Landry )

This doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong by any means.  That said, the difference would be Corners would be covering Cook as a Slot instead of LBers in the hook zones and/or the flats that typically were assigned to him as a RB.  That's not as big of an advantage to Cook as slipping him out in a wheel route, swing pass or even via a fake hand-off where he ends up wide open in the hook zones or the fringes of the flats.  IMO, those corners can change direction faster than LBers; especially on a guy that looks like he lost a step.   Father time doesn't even need a pursuit angle to catch guys from behind.

[Flugel]

2 hours ago, Korsou Dawg said:

Landry is retired. He is just in denial about that. 

Yeah, he's more ready to do Country Time Lemonade commercials from a rocking chair on the front porch.

[TexasAg1969]

3 hours ago, Flugel said:

Yeah, he's more ready to do Country Time Lemonade commercials from a rocking chair on the front porch.

Or Subway commercials with Payton and Charles.