Dalvin Cook is On a Historic Pace Through Ten Games in 2019
Dalvin Cook continued his torrid 2019 season on Sunday night in front of a national audience, out-dueling Ezekiel Elliott and helping lead the Vikings to a huge road victory.
With 183 yards from scrimmage against the Cowboys, Cook posted his fourth game of the season with over 170 yards from scrimmage. He now leads the NFL in that department with 1,415 total yards on the season (141.5 per game).
With 991 rushing yards and 424 receiving yards so far, Cook is on pace for 1,586 and 678, respectively. Even if his pace falls off slightly over the season's final six games, Cook has a real shot to reach 1,500 rushing yards and 600 receiving yards. Only seven players in NFL history have reached those marks in a single season.
If Cook, who has 204 receiving yards over the past three games, were to reach 1,500 yards rushing and 700 receiving, the list of players to do that shrinks to just LaDainian Tomlinson in 2003 and Steven Jackson in 2006. (Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, who trails Cook by two rushing yards and 38 receiving yards despite having played one fewer game, could also join that group this season).
Overall, Cook's 1,415 yards from scrimmage put him on pace for 2,264, which would be the 14th-most in NFL history, assuming McCaffrey finishes with more. The NFL record of 2,509, set by Chris Johnson in 2009, may be slightly out of reach for Cook. However, the Vikings franchise record of 2,314 that Adrian Peterson set in his incredible 2012 campaign is certainly attainable if he continues this pace.
With one more game of at least 90 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards, Cook would become the first player in NFL history to do that four times in a single season. He's already one of only four players to ever have three such games (Elliott in 2018, Edgerrin James in 1999, and Priest Holmes in both 2001 and 2002 are the others).
The final six games of the season will be crucial for the Vikings, who are looking to get back to the playoffs any way they can. But feeding their star running back seems like their best shot at getting there, and Cook's statistical accomplishments will be an interesting sub-plot to track the rest of the way.
