Dalvin Cook Shows he is Best Running Back in Draft After Combine

Dalvin Cook made quite the statement with his showing this past week in Indianapolis – and proved why he is the best back in the draft.

This past week, hundreds of the top college football players from this past season gathered in Indianapolis for the annual meat market known as the NFL Scouting Combine. It was a chance for players, such as former FSU stars including running back Dalvin Cook, to help their stock heading into the NFL Draft at the end of April.

In the case of Cook, there was no doubt that he is already going to be a first round draft pick in over a month and a half – but his day inside Lucas Oil Stadium last week made the argument that he isn’t only one of the best backs out there – but he is THE best running back available out there this year.

A total of 35 running backs took the field for various drills throughout their day – everything from bench press, broad jump, 60 yard shuttle and of course, the 40-yard dash. After the numbers were crunched, you see that Dalvin Cook came to shine.

40-Yard-Dash

The former FSU star showed the speed that made him one of the top recruits in the country coming out of Miami three years ago. Cook took his 210 lbs. frame and ran a sub 4.5 in his runs, coming in at 4.49 seconds. That is just .01 of a second behind both Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey and San Diego State’s Donnel Pumphrey.

At the same time, Dalvin Cook finished with a faster time than both LSU’s Leonard Fournette (4.51) and Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine (4.65), two of the top backs compared with DC4.

Bench Press

Once again, Cook showed his strength was not just in his legs, but also in his arms and upper body. When it came to getting under the bar holding 225 lbs., Cook was able to knock out 22 reps – tying him for fourth most of all the backs in the combine. Perine was the tops with 30 while another former FSU back, Freddie Stevenson, came in second with 24 reps.

As for the other ‘best backs’ out there? Well, McCaffrey knocked out an amazing…10 reps under the weights while Pumphrey was able to use his strength to knock out…five.

Florida State Seminoles Football

Other Events

Dalvin Cook was able to get nearly 10 feet in the board jump, coming up at 116 inches – tied with Perine, one inch behind Pumphrey and five behind McCaffrey. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Fournette decided not to take part.

Cook didn’t take part in the 60 yard shuttle event, which McCaffrey had the lowest time in (11.03 seconds). In the vertical jump, Cook came up at 30 .5 inches, which was seven behind McCaffrey among those backs considered the top overall.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that all the players we talked about – McCaffrey, Fournette, Perine and Pumphrey – are great athletes who will all get big pay days from the NFL at the end of April. Still, when you put the numbers from this weekend with what took place this season – Cook going over 1,700 yards and playing in the postseason unlike McCaffrey and Fournette – the argument stands that Dalvin Cook is the best running back in this year’s class.