Chicago Bears: Five NFC North stars to watch out for

5. Dalvin Cook

I personally don’t expect that the Minnesota Vikings will be a very good football team this year. Sam Bradford doesn’t inspire much fear at quarterback, and their defense, while solid, can’t hide offensive deficiencies forever.

But here’s a warning for everyone: do not sleep on Dalvin Cook.

Don’t get caught up in his relatively poor workouts this off-season and his draft slide into the second round. And don’t obsess over the signing of Latavius Murray and his veteran presence.

Cook has seized control of the Vikings running back room, and everyone should take care to focus on him from Day 1.

On one hand, he won’t necessarily dominate as a rookie in the same way that Adrian Peterson did back in 2007. He isn’t going to just bully people into submission with relentless ferocity and go off for 296-yard games. And as an athlete, he’s not as much of a physical specimen as Peterson was.

But he still has a ton of game.

If the Bears had trouble tackling Jerick McKinnon last year, what are they going to do with him?

He might not be Peterson, but he’s still going to make this Vikings offense worth paying attention to. And the Bears had better be paying attention.