Cowboys Visit with RB Dalvin Cook; Zimmer Endorsement?

FRISCO - Dalvin Cook has for two years made noise about wishing to play for the Dallas Cowboys. For the first time during that period, it seems like the Cowboys might be listening.

Former Pro Bowl Vikings running back Cook is traveling here to Frisco as we write this on Monday evening for a visit with the Cowboys, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Is this an impending signing? Maybe an admission that Dallas is lacking in the Ezekiel Elliott-led running backs room? A chance to simply explore what Cook, at age 29, might have left in the tank?

We will lean toward Door No. 3, knowing that the Cowboys have over the course of a year-plus considered Cook a player who doesn't have the same juice he had in Minnesota.

But there is something else that has changed about this year's Cowboys that might influence a change of mind.

Cook is a free agent this offseason after poor stints last year with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens. Cook was allowed to carry the ball just 67 times in 15 games for the Jets last season, rushing for 214 yards and no touchdowns; he was a non-factor. The playoff-entry Ravens, with all their injuries to backs, picked him up and gave him eight carries for 23 yards in a playoff game, but never used him again.

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Cook spent six seasons with the Vikings and made four Pro Bowl appearances in his seven-year career. Outside of Elliott, who is currently the "RB1A'' to Rico Dowdle's "RB1B,'' the Cowboys have a mixed bag, with Deuce Vaughn, Malik Davis and Royce Freeman trying for jobs, along with fullback Hunter Luepke, who seems locked in.

So what's different this year? The coach of those Vikings teams when Dalvin Cook was having all of that success? That would be Mike Zimmer, now the Dallas defensive coordinator and an influential voice here inside The Star.