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Friday update: The Vikings officially ruled out Dalvin Cook for Sunday. He is still projected to miss Week 13 and Week 14.
Monday PM update: Cook will miss the next two games due to his shoulder injury, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The team faces Detroit this Sunday and then has a short turnaround when they play the Steelers on Thursday night. They hope Cook will be ready to go the following week, which is a Monday night game against the Bears.
Monday update: Head coach Mike Zimmer told the Vikings media on Monday that Cook did not tear his labrum, but would not say if he dislocated his shoulder, per Chris Tomasson. Zimmer said Cook is day-to-day and he did not know if he would play this coming weekend against the Lions.
The Vikings will take the good news along with the bad when it comes to star running back Dalvin Cook. The veteran back was carted off of the field after suffering a shoulder injury in Week 12 and underwent additional testing Monday morning to confirm the severity. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on Monday that Cook suffered a torn labrum when he dislocated his shoulder, which the team hopes will not end his 2021 season.
Fantasy football implications
This is brutal news for Cook’s fantasy managers, backup RB Alexander Mattison gets a huge bump rest-of-season. In his four career games with Cook inactive, Mattison has averaged 25 touches for 124 scrimmage yards for a whopping 21.2 PPR points per game. Consider him a low-end RB1, high-upside RB2 for the remainder of the 2021 fantasy football season.
As for Cook, it’s an unfortunate blow and yet another notch in his storied history of shoulder injuries. Given the timing of the injury, it is likely that fantasy managers may have seen the last of Cook in their 2021 fantasy football lineups, as the team hopes to rest him and get him healthy in preparation for a post-season run. Despite a 5-6 losing record, the Vikings currently sit as the seventh seed in the NFC, in line for a Wild Card berth.