Dalvin Cook Reportedly Felt ‘Disrespected’ By Vikings’ Contract Offers
Dalvin Cook is reportedly planning on holding out until he gets a new contract because he felt disrespected by recent offers from the Minnesota Vikings. Bleacher Report‘s Tim Daniels wrote that Jeremy Fowler appeared on ESPN‘s SportsCenter on Saturday and shed some light on just why the relationship between the running back and his team has allegedly soured in the last few weeks.
“I’m told he’s planning to hold out simply because he felt disrespected by the offer the Vikings put on the table,” Fowler said.
“This is a player that believes he’s one of the best at his position, but he wasn’t asking really for Christian McCaffrey money, which is $16 million per year. He would probably take less than that. So they have about a month to try to find a sweet spot before training camp or else he plans to not show up.”
Cook might be willing to accept less money than McCaffrey did, but the Vikings’ back feels he’s among the best in the game. In fact, back in April, he told the Pioneer Press he felt he was the best running back in the game today. He followed those comments up by saying he wanted to be in Minnesota long term.
“I definitely love Minnesota,” Cook told the paper.
“I love everything the state has to bring. Being a kid, I was drafted (in 2017) from Miami, so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I actually am happy where I’m at, and I would like to be in Minnesota long term.”
The Vikings and Cook had been working on making that a reality and reports shortly after that interview said there was optimism a deal would get done. It’s not known exactly how much the team offered that effectively ended discussions between the two sides. The Inquisitr reported earlier this month he’s looking for something in the range of $13 million.
The situation becomes more complicated the longer it drags on for both sides. Cook has said he plans on sitting out camp if he doesn’t have a new deal in place by then. If he does follow through with his holdout, he could be taking steps that will keep him under the team’s control for longer. The new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFLPA says a player that skips out on fall camp will not only be penalized as much as $50,000 per day but will lose a year of their free agency eligibility. Under the previous CBA, that wasn’t a concern until 30 days before the regular season kicked off. With the new rules, Cook would be under the Vikings control until 2022 instead of 2021 even if they don’t sign a new deal.
