Dalvin Cook spent the first seven weeks of the 2024 NFL season on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad. In Week 8, the four-time Pro Bowler will get a chance to prove that he can still be an effective NFL running back.
The Cowboys are elevating Cook to their 53-man roster for their ‘Sunday Night Football’ game against the San Francisco 49ers, according to multiple reports. That will allow the running back – who has been ‘tearing it up in practice,’ per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero – to make his Dallas debut.
Cook was signed to Dallas’ practice squad after remaining unsigned during the 2024 offseason. The 29-year-old last played in 16 games during the 2023 NFL season, 15 in the regular season with the New York Jets and one postseason game with the Baltimore Ravens. He posted 75 carries for 237 yards across those contests with no touchdowns.
Does Cook have anything left in the tank? The Cowboys aren’t risking much by trying to find out. They have the NFL’s worst rushing offense, averaging 77.2 yards per game, but it isn’t clear whether Cook will remedy their issues.
Here’s what to know about Cook’s fit with the Cowboys and his fantasy outlook for the rest of the season.
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Cowboys RB depth chart
Dallas used a committee approach at running back during the first seven weeks of the 2024 NFL season. Below is the pecking order before Cook’s addition to the group:
Rico Dowdle
Ezekiel Elliott
Hunter Luepke
Deuce Vaughn
Here’s a look at the role each running back has played in Dallas’ rotation:
Rico Dowdle
Dowdle has been Dallas’ most effective back, tallying 246 yards on 59 carries while also performing well as a receiver. He has played 42.75 percent of the team’s offensive snaps, the most among the team’s running backs, and figures to maintain his lead role in the backfield given his solid performance to date.
Ezekiel Elliott
Elliott has served as the Cowboys’ No. 2 back, but he hasn’t been nearly as effective as Dowdle. Elliott is averaging just 3 yards per carry compared to Dowdle’s 4.2 and Elliott is also averaging a team-low 6 yards per reception. Nonetheless, Elliott has played 32.85 percent of Dallas’ snaps, but Cook may eat into his workload if the 2017 second-rounder shows more explosiveness than Elliott.
Hunter Luepke
Luepke serves as a fullback for the Cowboys, but he occasionally is the only back on the field. He has played just two fewer snaps than Elliott and has 11 touches for 105 yards on the season. Luepke doesn’t figure to get many carries for Dallas, but the North Dakota State product should maintain his 32.37 percent snap share thanks to his great blocking and good receiving abilities.
Deuce Vaughn
Vaughn has played just 5.07 percent of offensive snaps this year and has 20 yards on seven carries. He has played 13 special teams snaps in 2024, so that may allow him to stay on the active game day roster. It will be interesting to see who the Cowboys decide to sideline if Cook is activated, as they will likely need one of their running backs to play on special teams.
Dalvin Cook fantasy outlook
The big question for anyone assessing whether Cook is worth adding in fantasy football is about his usage.
It’s hard to imagine that Cook would take on the lion’s share of the backfield work in Dallas’ committee. After all, Cook never played more than 50 percent of the snaps in a single game during the 2023 NFL season and handled 10-plus touches just three times in 16 games.
The Cowboys will likely give Cook a chance to absorb some of the work given to Elliott and have the veteran backs compete against one another for the backup role behind Dowdle. That said, the Cowboys may also ease Cook into action as he reacclimates to the NFL game. That will give him a low floor and make him hard to trust as anything more than a speculative, touchdown-dependent flex in Week 8.
That said, picking up Cook isn’t a bad gamble. Dallas doesn’t have an established lead back, so he could find a way to take some touches away from Elliott and Dowdle as he works his way into game shape. Things are wide-open, so Cook’s upside is pretty high.
That may seem strange to say about a running back who averaged 3.2 yards per carry last season, but just look at what the Kansas City Chiefs are doing with Kareem Hunt. If Cook can similarly find a second wind for his career, he could end up being more of a fantasy asset than most are anticipating.
