Dalvin Cook is coming to New York. The league’s worst-kept secret finally came to fruition Monday when reports came out that the team had agreed to sign the former Vikings running back to a one-year deal.
So a question now is how is the depth chart affected going forward with Cook now in the mix? One way to answer that is by looking at Cook and Breece Hall as 1A and 1B in any particular order, especially now that Hall is off the physically unable to perform list and can practice again.
The Jets had wanted to ease Hall back into action coming off his ACL injury in October and the Cook interest and eventual signing helped reiterate that point. But now that Hall is able to practice, that is all the better news for the Jets to start using their new 1-2 punch.
So what about the rest of the running back room? You can argue Zonovan Knight has had a better summer and preseason thus far than Michael Carter. Similar to Hall and Cook, perhaps Carter and Knight could be considered 2A and 2B (or 3A and 3B depending on how you define it).
Both still seem in line to make the 53, but maybe it’s not as much of a guarantee as it was before the weekend.
Then there’s rookie Israel Abanikanda, who has shown flashes through the first two preseason games and is becoming a tough cut for the Jets. If they cut him, he’s going to get scooped up by another team. He’s likely still behind the top four, but as referenced before, maybe we can’t rule out the possibility that the team cuts either Carter or Knight — Carter would probably be more likely to get cut than Knight.
We also can’t forget about fullback Nick Bawden, who has been involved often in camp and has been penciled in on many projected rosters. The Jets like what they see out of the fullback and can use him in multiple ways. If anything, Bawden would be among the last players in or out when final cuts come around.
So we could be looking at something like this as the depth chart:
1A. Dalvin Cook
1B. Breece Hall
2A. Michael Carter
2B. Zonovan Knight
3. Israel Abanikanda
FB: Nick Bawden
A player, too, like Travis Dye would also make a good practice squad candidate for the Jets. He had some good work against the Panthers on Saturday.
On paper, the Jets look to have a crowded running back room, but that is meant in a good way. They could have some awfully tough decisions to make in the next few weeks.