For the past six years, the Minnesota Vikings have leaned heavily on running back Dalvin Cook as a centerpiece of their offense. Despite playing every game of a season just once in six years, over the last four seasons, Cook rushed for more than 1,100 yards each time, averaged 43 receptions, and scored 46 touchdowns. That is a ton of production, but with a contract that called for him to get paid $10.4 million, the Vikings opted to release Cook. It wasn’t a move that was received well, but it was part of the franchise’s desire to rid itself of some large veteran contracts.
The Vikings made their intentions known months earlier when they re-signed Cook’s backup, Alexander Mattison, before he had the chance to test free agency (two years, $7 million) and did little else to shake things up in the running backs room. The message sent by the Cook release is that head coach Kevin O’Connell may want to replicate the Los Angeles Rams‘ pass-happy offense that won a Super Bowl when he was offensive coordinator.
For the first time since Adrian Peterson came to Minnesota in 2007, there are more questions than answers for the Vikings’ running game in the short- and long-term outlooks.
Alexander Mattison
In four seasons, Mattison has rushed just 404 times for 1,670 yards, caught 70 passes, and scored 14 touchdowns. Those aren’t the kind of numbers that vault a player up draft boards, but they don’t tell the whole story.
When Mattison received the opportunity, he made the most of it. In his five starts since late in the 2020 season when he had to step in for Cook, Mattison has rushed 107 times for 451 yards, caught 21 passes, and scored five touchdowns. The Vikings are convinced that limited sample size (90-plus rushing yards in four of five starts) can carry over for a full season.
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That is not a unanimous opinion outside the Vikings locker room, but considering that no high-level competition who could potentially challenge him for his starting job was brought in during free agency or the draft, Mattison looks to have a full-time job handed to him after four years of being an understudy.
Ty Chandler
A fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft, Chandler made a big impression in the preseason, leading the team with 15 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown. However, with Cook and Mattison both healthy throughout 2022, Chandler was active for just three games, and his six rushes for 20 yards came in Week 18 with the starters resting.
He has a lot to prove, but he will likely enter the season as the “next man up” if Mattison gets injured. He showed a lot of versatility at North Carolina but needs a lot of polish – and actual game reps – to carve out a significant role for himself.
DeWayne McBride
A seventh-round rookie, McBride dominated at UAB – leading the FBS in rushing yards per game (155.7) and yards per carry (7.4). He has elite balance to keep moving through contact and shows top-end agility, vision and instincts. That said, he was never asked to be a blocker or a receiver and will need a lot of refinement to his game – which partially is why he was available in the seventh round (a rather deep RB class didn’t help). He will be a player to keep an eye on in the preseason, but seventh-round rookie running backs rarely make the “out of nowhere” jump to relevance early.
Kene Nwangwu
One of the league’s elite kickoff returner, he has displayed flashes of explosiveness and a second gear in the open field. Like everyone else on the Vikings’ running back roster, bigger things are expected from what they’ve previously produced. For the moment, Nwangwu will make the roster for his special teams skills but doesn’t have a clearly defined role in the offense.
Fantasy football outlook
Mattison is at the very bottom end of the RB3 ADP grouping, because there are so many unknowns with the Vikings offense with Cook gone.
Many believe the running game is going to become far more secondary in Minnesota’s offense, so the value of any of the Vikings running backs takes a hit in that event. That being said, few starting running backs in the NFL have less in the way of viable competition for snaps than Mattison, which makes him a value pick at his current ADP. He has borderline RB1 upside but is a safer bet for No. 2 returns at the price of a third.
An axiom among fantasy veterans is that you never handcuff a running back who isn’t your first-round pick. Therefore, the remainder of the Vikings’ new-look running back room doesn’t have any legitimate fantasy value unless Mattison goes down.
