Vikings Territory: Comparisons Of Adrian Peterson And Dalvin Cook Don't Have To Be About Supremacy

Press release from Vikings Territory:

July 7, 2021

Vikings brains used the last week to compare and debate the career merits of Adrian Peterson and Dalvin Cook – an event that draws ire as folks erroneously jump to brash conclusions. Any evaluation of the two men ends with the takeaway that some party is attempting to claim Cook’s supremacy to Peterson.

It started with this in December.

July 1, 2021

And the dueling, likeminded posts resulted in polls like this:

July 6, 2021

Peterson – who we should not speak of in past tense as he is currently a free agent – is iconic in Minnesota lore. He inflicted his damage on opposing defenses when everyone in the general realm of the football game understood that the ball was going to him. Cook isn’t quite like that. Peterson hit home runs whereas Cook breaks off doubles and triples. Here is evidence:

But Peterson was stuffed a lot more often than Cook for negative yards. He’d set up the defense with teensy losses, waiting on a humongous run assured to devastate defensive morale. On the other hand, Cook rarely encounters runs for losses, at least juxtaposed to Peterson:

https://t.co/rvF6XY8UoS

It is tremendously fair – insightful, even – to analyze Peterson and Cook against one another as players. They play the same position in relatively the same era – for the same team. Exalting Cook’s numbers is wise because the football body politic would likely scoff at any notion that suggests Cook is in Peterson’s orbit.

Cook catches passes out of the backfield; Peterson did not. Peterson built a career on 40+ yard touchdown scampers; Cook, for the most part, does not.

This press release was produced by Vikings Territory. The views expressed here are the author’s own.