Vikings’ Dalvin Cook undergoes shoulder surgery but expected to be ready for regular season

For the first time in his six-year career, Vikings star running back Dalvin Cook played in every game in 2022. But that didn’t mean he was healthy throughout the season.

Cook suffered a dislocated shoulder in Week 3 against Detroit and battled through it the rest of the campaign while wearing a shoulder harness. And on Tuesday, he had shoulder surgery.

The team said in a statement that Cook “underwent successful surgery to address a shoulder injury sustained over the past few seasons.” The team said Cook is “expected to make a full recovery prior to the start of the regular season.”

Cook has had notable shoulder issues since the 2019 season. After he was knocked out of the game against Detroit in the third quarter on Sept. 25 with a left shoulder injury, he said he was not wearing a harness then that he had donned at times previously. He vowed to resume wearing it, and was able to play the following Sunday against New Orleans in Detroit.

Salary-cap analyst Jason Fitzgerald, who runs the website OvertheCap.com, said Cook has an injury guarantee of $2 million on his $10.4 million base salary for 2023. Due to Cook’s surgery, that amount would officially become guaranteed March 17, the third day of the new league year. The remainder of his base salary is not guaranteed.

Cook rushed for 1,173 yards in 2022 to join Adrian Peterson and Robert Smith as the only players in team history to have four straight 1,000-yard seasons. He also made his fourth straight Pro Bowl.

Cook missed at least two games in each of his first five seasons, although just one of the two he sat out in 2020 was due to injury. He was proud of the fact that he was able to appear in all 17 games in 2022.

“Means a lot,” Cook said Jan. 16, the day after the Vikings lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Giants. “It means I was there for my guys. That’s always been my goal.”

Also Tuesday, the University of Oregon announced that A’lique Terry has been hired as offensive line coach after he spent one season as Minnesota’s assistant defensive line coach. Terry had spent 2019 and 2020 as a graduate assistant for the Ducks.