2 Ways Dalvin Cook’s Holdout Affects the Green Bay Packers

On Monday it was reported that Dalvin Cook will not be participating in team activities until he gets a new deal. Here are two ways Cook’s holdout affects the Green Bay Packers.

It was reported on Monday by ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook would not be participating in any team activities moving forward unless he receives a “reasonable” deal.

During the 2019 season, Cook was an integral part of the Vikings offense totaling over 1,100 rushing yards with 13 touchdowns. He would also tally an additional 519 receiving yards on 53 receptions. And as we look ahead to the 2020 season, Cook was once again going to assume the same role, if not a larger one, given that Stefon Diggs is no longer with the team and that there are a number of new faces apart of this Vikings team.

Now of course as Green Bay Packers fans, this news may have given us a nice laugh on Monday afternoon since it is coming at the expense of the Vikings. But there are two major ways that Dalvin Cook’s holdout could affect the Packers in 2020.

Green Bay Packers play Minnesota Week 1

The first is that the Minnesota Vikings are the Packers’ Week 1 opponent. Whether or not Cook does holdout into the season remains to be seen, but at this moment, all signs point to him sitting out until he gets a new deal.

In recent seasons we’ve seen other running backs like Melvin Gordon and Le’Veon Bell use a similar tactic, however, it didn’t’ end up working too well for either back. Maybe the Vikings don’t feel that they have to give into Cook’s demands and he ultimately decides to rejoin the team, which would make this a moot point.

With that said, if he does miss Week 1, that will certainly have a lasting impact on the game. Last season, Cook wouldn’t play in the team’s Week 16 matchup and we saw how stagnant that Minnesota offense looked without him. And in Week 2, he would run wild on the Packer defense, posting 154 rushing yards on nearly eight yards per carry.

Even with the game being in Minnesota, with no Cook, the Green Bay Packers become the favorites to win that game and take the early advantage over a division rival.

Aaron Jones is in the final year of his contract as well

Like Cook, Aaron Jones is in the final year of his rookie deal as well, and depending on how this holdout ends up for Cook, is there the possibility that Jones also decides to sit out?

Given that it has been discussed openly at the NFL Combine and it was recently reported by ESPN that Jones’ representatives and the Green Bay Packers are in contract extension discussions, my guess is that Jones won’t choose to sit out.

However, in these contract negotiations, what Jones wants and what the Packers are offering could look completely different. As we all know, Jones is coming off an excellent 2019 season and if he can duplicate it, he could very well be in line for a big payday.

According to Spotrac, they are currently projecting Jones to earn a contract with an average annual value of $13.1 million on the open market. While Jones was absolutely an integral part of the Green Bay offense last season, if that’s his price tag, he simply won’t be back.

Meanwhile, from the Packers’ perspective, they could be looking at a deal similar to what Austin Ekeler signed with the Los Angeles Chargers. It was a four year deal with an average annual value of $6.125 million. Both Ekeler and Jones entered the NFL in 2017, put up similar numbers in 2019, and have been effective both as running backs and in the passing game as well.

It’s a fairly good comp between the two backs and I imagine that Ekeler’s contract is in the ballpark of what Green Bay is looking to offer Jones.

While we hope it doesn’t come to Jones holding out – and as I said I don’t expect it to – free agency hasn’t been kind to running backs and that difference of $6-$7 million per year is a lot of money for him to potentially leave on the table.

Ultimately we don’t know right now what the impact of a Dalvin Cook holdout will be with Aaron Jones – if there’s any – but I am certain that this is something that Jones and his agent are monitoring.