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Jim Mone/Associated Press

Without Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings had the NFL's worst running game last season, averaging a league-low 3.2 yards per rush and 75.3 rushing yards per game. With Peterson gone, the Vikings deserve credit for making an effort to upgrade on 2016 failures Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata.

They did so by signing veteran Latavius Murray and selecting electric Florida State product Dalvin Cook in Round 2 of the draft. But they come with red flags.

Murray has failed to live up to the hype he gained with a 5.2 yards-per-attempt average in his first season, averaging just 4.0 yards per carry while being demoted into a platoon role over the last two years. Minnesota is paying him $15 million on a three-year deal, which is a lot in running back realms.

Cook is an explosive home run hitter with an ideal combination of vision, patience and speed, and he has the resume to back it up. But Cook dropped into the second round due to the draft's most infamous alliterative phrase: character concerns. He found plenty of trouble growing up, highlighted in this profile by The MMQB's Robert Klemko. He was arrested twice as a teenager (charges were dropped both times) and had several brushes with authority while at FSU.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported during the draft that the slide might have had to do with Cook's hangers-on:

"So the reason as far as I'm told [his slide] relates to some of the people that he hangs out with off the field. It's more upbringing than character if that makes any sense. Because at this point, from what I'm told, the on-field character is very good, considered to be at Florida State an excellent teammate, a very hard worker. But some of it is the situations he puts himself in off the field. He has promised teams that the people around him are not coming with him to the NFL."

A lack of balance killed the Vikings last year, partly because quarterback Sam Bradford isn't a field-stretcher. There's a chance they've figured that out this offseason, but Murray might have already peaked, and Cook is a second-round rookie with a lot to prove.