How Gary Kubiak is approaching Dalvin Cook's holdout
Vikings' OC says he understands business is business
*Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings
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Gary Kubiak’s career as an NFL coach has seen all sorts of different types of teams be successful. As an offensive coordinator, he won with John Elway and Terrell Davis leading the charge. As a head coach he guided the Houston Texans to relevancy despite the lack of a future Hall of Fame quarterback and then won a Super Bowl with one of the greatest defenses of all time back in Denver.
One thing that has always persisted throughout is having a highly productive running game. Since becoming an OC in 1995, Kubiak has operated a top 10 rushing attack in total yards in 15 of his 23 seasons.
The value of a quality running game and running backs have become a hotly debated subject among NFL analysts. As you might expect, Kubiak strongly backed his commitment to having a quality run game when talking with the Twin Cities media on Wednesday.
“I love running backs,” Kubiak said. “I’ve had some really good ones in my day. Got a couple world championship rings because of one I’m thinking of in my head right now, but we believe in running the football.”
The nuance of the Running Backs Don’t Matter movement, like so many other debates in 2020, gets lost. Putting together a good run game is still much better than having a bad one. According to Pro-Football reference, the difference was 22 points between the putrid 2018 rushing attack (ranked 30th) and last year’s successful run game. That’s an entire game’s worth of points added. The question is whether teams run too often and whether running backs are replaceable enough to avoid dedicating a high percentage of cap space to them.
Kubiak is the poster boy for the latter point. Over his career, he’s been in charge of running backs like Terrell Davis and Arian Foster, who were the farthest thing from high draft picks and turned into All-Pro talents and he’s overseen no-name backs who became quality runners like Mike Anderson, Tatum Bell and Justin Forsett. Kubiak was the OC in Denver when they traded Clinton Portis to Washington.
The Vikings’ OC said he’s often asked why he gets the most out running backs regardless of their draft status or cap hit.
“I think it’s commitment to running the ball,” Kubiak said. “You can sit here and say this guy was a great player or that guy was a great player, and you’ve got to have them to be successful, but I think anything you do in life or football – if you’re committed to something, you’ve probably got a pretty good chance of being successful at it. We really start our classroom offensively, we walk into a room and tell our guys we’re committed to running the football and being a physical team. I work for a head coach that talks that same way. It’s really just a mindset and saying hey we’re going to be good at doing this.”
His answer should tell you that whether Dalvin Cook signs a contract extension or not (he is currently holding out), Kubiak plans to make it 16 out of 24 years of having a top 10 run game.
Last year Alexander Mattison averaged 4.6 yards per carry and Mike Boone flashed some explosive ability in a small sample. And the Vikings have built an offensive line around that idea as well, drafting another athletic lineman in Ezra Cleveland this year. Last season PFF graded the Vikings 12th in run blocking.
Of course, Kubiak would prefer that Cook was at the center of his attack. He was PFF’s third highest graded runner last year (with at least 200 carries) and totaled 1,135 yards on the ground in 14 games.
“Dalvin is a great player, I don’t have to tell you guys that,” Kubiak said. “He’s a great person also. I’ve been around Dalvin one year and I knew a lot about him as a player when he came out. Obviously he’s stepped to the plate and played very well. When it comes to contracts, I’m not a negotiator, that’s between Rick and Dalvin. But that’s part of the business and we all understand that. Those guys will do their job and we have to stay focused on our job as a football team moving forward. We support Dalvin – Rick and he will go about their business, but we’ve got to get ready to play here this season so we’ll stay focused on that.”
One benefit that Cook has in his holdout endeavor is that he knows Kubiak’s system already so the Vikings’ OC does not believe he will fall behind because of missed time during his holdout.
“Dalvin Cook is very bright,” Kubiak said. “He has as good a grasp on what we do and how we go about it. Dalvin could teach class – he’s that bright and that smart of a football player. It’s part of the business. Guys like him, professionals like him, they take care of themselves and you understand that they’re going to go through things like this.”
The Vikings and Cook’s side still have over a month to work out a contract before training camp. If he misses camp practices, he will not accrue a season under the new CBA and will be an restricted free agent after 2020. And if it goes any farther than that, it’ll be up to Kubiak to work his running back magic again and find the next Tatum Bell or Mike Anderson.
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Mathew I still am not sold on this s ol called run first offense but great article.