AP

The Vikings ended their working relationship with running back Adrian Peterson when they released the veteran early this offseason and part of the plan in the backfield with Peterson out of the picture is for second-round pick Dalvin Cook to have a big role in the offense.

The team is certainly bullish on Cook’s potential and Cook hopes to fulfill those expectations, but he doesn’t want to put himself in the shoes of his predecessor at this point.

“He is a future Hall of Famer,” Cook said, via Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press. “This is my first year in the NFL. I am not as close to him, so I cannot compare myself to him at all because he is going to go down as one of the greatest backs in history probably. So I just have to go out there and work and I cannot have that in my head.”

There’s no arguing that Cook and Peterson are in very different places in their careers, but it seems likely that Peterson’s past work and what he does with the Saints in 2017 will be weighed against the numbers put up by Cook, Latavius Murray, Jerick McKinnon and anyone else who runs the ball in Minnesota this season.