Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency Podcast: Vikings sign Dalvin Cook -- did they make the right move?

Episode Date: September 12, 2020

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Reaction, you are the cap guy. You are the expert. Break it down for me. Yeah, you know, I think that, well, first and foremost, like you said, I think we were actually under 24 hours to go until kickoff, so they really like to keep things interesting. But, yeah, it came out of the wire. I think that it almost seemed like there was, you know,

it was trending towards a deal not happening at the end there. And, you know, we've seen rumors about Kamara. We've seen rumors about other guys. And it's kind of gone quiet on Cook. But, of course, the Vikings, as they love to do, step up, keep their man, a five-year extension as we've seen with everyone. Hunter, everyone gets the five-year deal off the rookie contract and often like Cook after that third season.

Yeah, I mean, initial reaction, you know, I came on months ago and I actually even put the number a touch higher. You know, I kind of gave them the benefit of the doubt that the running back market would keep growing a little bit and we wouldn't see this pushback that maybe we have seen a bit. You know, I said $13 million, kind of like David Johnson, it ends up at $12.6. So, you know, if you want to call it a small win for the Vikings, sure. You know, I think with everything, it's relative versus absolute. So I think in a relative sense, they won.

In an absolute sense, they just fully guaranteed $30 million to a running back who has played one full season. So we'll see. All right, so compare these deals to the other running backs because I didn't think that he would quite reach Christian McCaffrey level, and you didn't either when we talked months ago about this deal. Because McCaffrey is used more robustly in their offense at wide receiver he's obviously not had the health issues that Delvin Cook has had but I think we both agreed that he would get more than Derrick Henry because Derrick Henry is more of a one-dimensional running back so how does it

compare to the Mixon deal to the McCaffreyrey deal, and to the Henry deal? It kind of worked out perfectly. Yeah, you know, I don't want to, you know, say the exact same things I said last time, but it's funny. We kind of have seen the running back market is now, there's three of them really. There's the top, which is do-it-all, which is your Christian McCaffrey, your Kamar, and your Zeke's. Now we've seen the second tier emerge, and I think it's smart, and I think it will benefit running backs long term, with Henry Mixon and Cook kind of all falling in that 12, 12 and a half, 13 million dollar range. It's still good money. You know, you're still, think of it as like you're the slot receiver versus the outside receiver. Like, try to in your head, make it be okay, because you're not doing as much as those guys are doing.

But I do think Cook, even with the injuries, still did deserve more than Henry and Mixon, who are both second rounders and have played a lot of football games because he does still bring more in the passing game. And you mentioned it, and I actually went back and looked at it. He is incredible on passes behind the line of scrimmage. Again, relative because, again again we'd like to push the ball downfield but again he he's going to get you more out of those things than other backs are which which is value at the end of the day and he was number one in terms of yards after catch in the entire uh nfl last year for running backs so i mean i think that tells you his impact that he

makes in the screen game now we have have to talk about the length of the deal and a potential structure here because you mentioned it every Vikings deal is five but it always means three and so we don't have the exact breakdown from year to year with the cap hits but Adam Schefter reports that they moved some money around and restructured Eric Hendricks's deal to create six million dollars in cap space so now I'm guessing that we're going to see Delvin Cook's cap hit for this year go up and then have it spread out so next year's cap hit is not super high. And then 2022 is pretty manageable. Or, yeah, right, 2022, pretty manageable.

And then after that, it's pay as you go, basically. That's how I expect it to work since this is how the Vikings tend to do every contract yep no I'm with you as well and I'm sorry I was just pulling up the contract just to get the exact numbers here um just to see exactly how it would look because like you said they cleared up six million in room for Hendricks but I do think Cook's um his signing bonus, the portion that's going to go in 2020, I would guess that he makes up half of that, maybe $3 million or $2.5 million or something like that,

will now be added to his 2020 cap hit. So they're trying to just soften the blow of that with the restructure. And as always, what every team is doing is just create as much carryover room as humanly possible. So, yeah, so I agree. I think it's going to be small. It'll probably stay around the same base salary of like a million in 2020. But, yeah, we're going to see some signing bonus.

And then I think because we were this late in the stages now of the negotiation, 2021 was probably being talked about as though it was going to be the franchise tag amount of, you know, 6.3 million is the current projection. So I could see a scenario where they kind of were working off of that number and tried to keep probably less than that if I had to guess. But, like, not so far below that that could kind of like, well, maybe I should have gotten tagged and gotten this, you know, so maybe 5 million in 2021.

And then, you know, then it'll start to move up. Well, and if that is the case for the Vikings, because the big question here is, is it a good idea to sign Delvin Cook? And there were a lot of people who said, no, not really, because he's a running back, and Todd Gurley blew up, and Devontae Freeman blew up, and so forth. And we've seen many of them go sideways. And there's also the argument that you can replace running backs so this was unique in my mind this negotiation because oftentimes you have fans that are just pushing

the team come on pay the guy pay the guy let's get this over with and in this case I think it was much more split about 50 50 but when we think of it through what the numbers will be for this year next year the year after that, it seems like that the risk is maybe not as high as we think. You know, it's interesting. I think that first and foremost, I'm trying to learn more and more about, and I will say that I think this is going to change with basically what we've seen as a society in the last six months with the empowerment of athletes in a general sense across the board, is that they're going to basically leverage the fact that they came in the building, they worked hard, they're a good locker room presence, and their teammates

like walking for them and playing with them and whatever the case may be. I mean, you saw when that trade rumor was released for Kamara, not Cook, but still, I think both guys are really highly regarded. When that came out, I saw Cam Jordan, Michael Thomas. I saw 10 guys tweet, like, you're not trading him. He's my favorite teammate. That's what we're going to have to see. We talk about this running back market.

I think other positions, other players basically need to say, we're not going to allow you as an organization or as a league to devalue this guy. We get the analytics, but he's still touching the ball a ton. He's getting hit as much or not more than everybody else. So they might say, you know what, we see the numbers, we understand it, but we don't care. But you need full buy-in from everyone to do that.

So is it smart, you know, from a football perspective? I mean, you know where PFF stands in a general sense on that. But the Vikings are in a position right now where I think they recognize there's a bit of a window in the NFC North, even arguably a bit of a window in the NFC itself. And if what it takes to just keep everything going and keep it all together is to just give this guy the deal, and I think that they were willing to do that. The tough part for me is that they bought themselves the out.

Like they drafted the third rounder in 2019. He looks similar. He's not Dalvin Cokie. He's a decent player. They've always had solid depth at the position. You know, Boone, everyone's favorite Boone and all the guys they have, a running back. Like, they could have at least tried.

And we still haven't seen a team dig their heels in and finally once and for all just say, let's see what happens. So it would have been cool because I like the Vikings and I think they're a smart, they are a smart group. It could have been cool to maybe see him try. Yeah. And that's what I wondered as we got closer and closer. And I woke up today just, you know, thinking about refreshing the Twitter all day long

to see if this contract was going to come down because it did feel like somewhat of a deadline today. If it didn't happen today, then his value goes down the minute he steps on the field and then the negotiations become even more difficult. And it would have been really shocking to me if the Vikings had dug their heels in because they just haven't. And even when it hasn't made the most sense by the analytics and so forth, they've always done it.

The Anthony Barr contract to me was the one that I leaned on this entire time. Like, hey, if they paid Barr at the very last second, they're going to pay Delvin Cook too. Last year, they could have dug their heels in with Kyle Rudolph and said, no, we're not giving you a contract extension. Sorry, man, but 30-year-old tight ends who aren't fast are not making the same impact. And we just drafted another guy and yet they still came around. And what it comes down to for me, Brad, is they have one of the best cap people in the NFL in Rob Brzezinski, who seems to always be able to work things out to time out with these contracts are leaving so we can afford to have these contracts coming in. And it feels to

me like since they have the ownership backing and they're always willing to put the money kind of up front, that they can do these things that aren't exactly by the book and not have it hurt them. Yeah, no, 100%. I think that that's the beauty that comes with stability. You know, we talk a lot about on-field stability, offensive lines, whatever you want to look at.

And we talk about coaching turnover a lot in the NFL. But when you have a front office who's been there for, you would know better than me, like 12, 11, 12 years now, they've both been there. Like you said, you've staggered cap hits for all your players. You're projecting things three, four, five years out. If you're a GM, like with the Jets, why would you project something four years out?

You're not going to be there. Like, so it enables, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy where because they've been doing that, they can keep doing that. They're way ahead of the game. They're never going to get in a situation where they're actually, like, full-scale limited by the cap. They're always going to be close to the cap because they don't like to push as much money as other people do.

That's intentional. They restructure, like we've seen,'ve restructured multiple guys this offseason. So, yeah, and that's what comes with stability in the front office. And like you said, a guy who just knows. And the thing is, though, like you said, at the same time, he does seem to maybe write in pen, not pencil, that he's going to extend his guys, which, you know, I think that in a weird, funny way, one thing I started to notice more as well is when a team brings on a guy,

a new guy from a different team, and everyone talks about the Neil Hunter assuming it would be him because it's the same position, but there's often this onus and there's this feeling in the locker room like you brought this outsider in, you're paying him a lot, you're extending him or whatever, but you haven't taken care of one of our guys yet. I genuinely think Buda Baker, his deal got done so that the Andre Hopkins deal could get done. I think the Cardinals

wanted to, yeah, we'll take care of our own and then we'll take care of this stud that we acquired in a trade from elsewhere. But I almost think the leverage may have been like we're not going to sign this thing until it's good enough and we know you need us to because you want to send this message. And the same same vein i almost weirdly think the engakwe trade may have sort of helped cook in that they make this huge splash move right before the season starts for a

franchise tag you know obviously they lowered it down to 12 million but so now it's like all right you got and the whole saga with reef so it almost kind of looked like there was like some friction kind of starting to create. Now it goes back the other way. There's no friction. You just extended the running back. Why would there be friction? I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. They just launched their official collaboration with Bud Grant.

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You can stream every live, out-of-market NFL game every Sunday afternoon on your favorite devices, plus Red Zone and DirecTV Fantasy Zone channels. Never miss your favorite team and favorite players no matter where you live nfl sunday ticket.tv is your key to the most glorious sundays ever use the promo code blue wire checkout to get 15 off your subscription visit nfl sunday ticket.tv and use promo code blue wire yeah this is a great point that you, that a lot of times we can look at overthecap.com and we can say, oh, look, why don't they just do this or do that or cut this guy or why do they pay this guy this much?

And a lot of times there are many more dynamics at play, including the locker room, the organization, how players are viewed, how teammates view the player. And I think that was very important with Delvin Cook. When they released the schedule, they put Delvin Cook's face on the player. And I think that was very important with Delvin Cook. When they released the schedule, they put Delvin Cook's face on the schedule. And I think at that moment, we all went, okay, he's definitely signing at some point here. Like they're not going to play games

throughout the entire season with him. They're eventually going to figure this out because of how important he is to just the face of the franchise. When you ask people around the league, Minnesota Vikings, who's the first player you think of? I think it's Delvin Cook. Even as expensive as Kirk Cousins is, I think it's still Delvin Cook.

Now, the important thing to me, and I think a lot of people, is how this all fits in through next year, because the salary cap is going to go down. Daniil Hunter's contract is not right, and I think they're going to make it right. And you have Kirk Cousins' cap hit is going up. You have Brian O'Neill who's going to need a contract extension. There are a lot of dynamics here at play with the Vikings' salary cap going forth, and I know that they'll figure it out, but does it hurt them to have Delvin Cook

bigger cap hits going forward with things changing in the NFL? So, you know, it's funny because I think that even when we see how everything's handled in 2021, when we see how the cap truly shakes out and if it goes down or if it stays flat or maybe by some blessing it does manage to go up by a little bit or whatever it is. I think we have been proven, and this was me challenging my priors a lot, that a team can work around and can find the room for anyone. The Saints are so much further out than every other team right now with what they've done. Even the Eagles, I believe the Saints are like even like another step ahead of them.

Maybe not. Maybe they're in their own tier. But anyways, so a team can always do it. Whether they want to, a great point you mentioned earlier, whether the Wills want to fork up the cash to do it, because I think one thing that I point out to people with these restructures is, yeah, you're creating space, and yes, the money is the same either way. You're not adding money.

But instead of paying a guy $5 million over the span of 34 weeks or whatever it is, you're giving it to him as a signing bonus that day or that month or that next two months. So from a cash flow perspective, trust me, the owner is aware of restructures happening. I can promise you that. So can they make it all work? Yes.

I think it's going to come down to one of these two safeties is not going to be on the roster in 2021. They're either going to choose to – well, I mean, I guess Harris is not going to cut Harrison, but they're either going to extend him or maybe they're not going to work on an extension and he's going to – they're going to figure something out there, trade him or something, or they're going to let Harris walk. That, to me, is going to be – and I don't think that's because of Dalvin Cook, but I think it probably – like it was already probably a possibility.

Now I think it's even more of a possibility. Do you think that they extend Ngakwe the day that they're allowed to extend Ngakwe? Yes, I do. I also do. Now, but that – you talk about how these things work. If whatever they pay Ngakwe, they have to make sure that Hunter is making more. Yep. No, you're right.

And so you mentioned, yeah, you mentioned it, of course. And it's tough, too, because, I mean, he's going to have three years left on his deal. And we're sitting here talking about precedent and the Vikings loving precedent. I don't recall them doing an extension. Maybe Thielen, I suppose, but that's obviously a different circumstance. You know, they extended him off of the RFA tender for, like, $4 million a year, and then immediately it was like, all right, this deal is unfair for all parties involved. Let's rip this thing up and give him a fair contract.

That's not the case with Hunt. I mean, it's getting there, but it's not quite there. But, yeah, I agree. They're going to have to do something. I mean, like, we saw Stephon Gilmore just get an outright raise this year. That's probably the minute they got to do something, yeah. And Gakwe cannot be the highest paid guy, and he's still going to command like 18, 19 million a year a deal.

And to your point, the Harrison Smith situation will be interesting to follow because if he plays this year like he played last year, then you have to keep him on the roster. He's the most important player to the defense if he's playing that well. They've shown that they can replace the other position. As much respect as I have for Anthony Harris and his playmaking ability, and not everybody can go up and catch it as a safety like he can, but Harrison Smith is really the wheel that turns the whole thing.

So before we wrap up, and I really appreciate this, man, jumping in on a Saturday, just like what great service. So give me a grade. Like this is what you have to do now, man. You're in the game. You're not just behind the scenes Brad Spielberger for over the cap, like your PFF, you're out there now. So you have to grade it for the Vikings and grade it for Delvin Cook's side. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. So, again, as I mentioned, I'm not trying to just hedge and give myself an F.

But from a relative sense, like, I will say I'll give the Vikings, like, a B-plus. Because I sat here, I mean, I told you months ago I thought he was going to get more than this. I did think it would be shorter. But, yeah, I said 13, maybe 13.5 a year. Again, per year is not everything. The $28 million guaranteed is also a very strong number. I mean, McCaffrey got $30 million guaranteed on a six-year extension, and Cook just got $28 on a five-year.

So it's a very strong deal for both parties. So, yeah, I mean, I'll give them both B-pluses just with the caveat being that I don't think any running back probably should be getting a deal this size, but that's not how the world works. That's not how life works. So I'm not going to, you know, nitpick from that perspective. Okay. Slight cop out on your part to just give them both B pluses. That is, you're going to have to ramp up the hot takiness going forward, but I agree with you. And I am not surprised because this is the Vikings world we live in that. I think that every deal that they've done, because this is the Vikings world we live in,

that I think that every deal that they've done, whether it was Diggs, Kendricks, Barr, Hunter at the time, I think we thought was a little under his price. But everybody else has pretty much walked away with the player's side going, okay, we did pretty good there. And the team side going, okay, we did pretty good there. So this is one of the things that makes the Vikings wheels turn as an operation. And I was asked just the other day, like, what do you think of the front office for the Vikings? How strong is it? And I think it's one of the best in the entire NFL. You can nitpick at, yeah, the Treadwell thing went bust. They have not ever figured out left guard. That's certainly been a problem. But in terms of making this all work with a giant quarterback contract, it's impressive from the front office standpoint. So Brad, you are a must follow on Twitter at PFF underscore Brad. You're doing your work at ProFootballFocus.com now

or PFF.com. It used to be the whole word. Now just PFF.com. Yeah, I think they bought the rights. So you've got your instant reaction with you and Eric Eager, a friend of the show, up there as well. And, again, really appreciate the time. Jumping right on. Your first emergency podcast. I'm sure there will be more in the future. Thanks, Brad.

Yeah, thanks for having me on. Always available. Hi, my name is Bobby Peters, and I've recently written a book titled The 2017 New England Patriots Pass Game Manual. If you've ever wondered what makes the New England Patriots offense, specifically their pass game, so successful over the years, this book is for you. The book breaks down in detail the schemes the Patriots use by concept.

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