Running back Dalvin Cook is officially a member of the Jets, but he won’t be practicing with them this week.
Head coach Robert Saleh said at a Tuesday press conference that it will be at least a week before Cook joins the team on the practice field. Cook’s child is due to be born soon and he is coming off of shoulder surgery this offseason.
Once Cook is ready to go, Saleh said the team will be working on ways to maximize his contributions as well as those of fellow backs Breece Hall and Michael Carter. Saleh said the team still believes Hall, who was activated from the PUP list Tuesday, will be ready to go in Week One and that he thinks there are many ways Cook can join the team’s returning players to put stress on defenses.
“There’s a lot of different things you can do to create a bunch of headaches for defensive coaches,” Saleh said, via SNY. “He’s not a trick back either. You can turn around, hand him the ball and he can run downhill. He’s done it for a long time.”
The Jets hope Cook will continue doing it as part of an offense that looks very, very different than the one they deployed at the end of the 2022 season.