Dalvin Cook's Empire State Building Super Bowl Talk Is So Jets

Looking over New York City from 1,200 feet up, new New York Jets running back Dalvin Cook detailed his high hopes for a football franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Richard Nixon occupied the Oval Office. According to Cook, a four-time Pro Bowler with the Vikings who was released by Minnesota and signed with New York this offseason, it’s a “very realistic” expectation that the Jets could hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February for the first time since 1969.

“I think it’s very realistic,” Cook told The New York Post while standing on top of the Empire State Building. “Obviously you look at the roster, you look at the people we’ve added and the things that we already had, just combining that in one, and I think it’s something to be excited about. We just gotta go out there and do our part. That’s why I came, that’s why I’m here, to help any way I can to get to where we need to go, and that’s holding up the trophy and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Circle Jets-Broncos After Denver’s Sean Payton Rips Gang Green

Payton mocked ex-Denver coach Nathaniel Hackett, who now works for New York

That’s what the Jets have been trying, and failing, to do for more than 50 years — and putting the cart before the horse, as it sounds like Cook is doing, is certainly a reason why. But it’s not really Cook’s fault. Plenty of media outlets, many of them based in New York, predicted that the Jets would make it to the Super Bowl after the team acquired Aaron Rodgers from the Packers via trade. The addition of the 28-year-old running back, who has yet to take a snap for his new team, has only led to more Super Bowl predictions for Gang Green, including Cook’s. (Team owner Woody Johnson is apparently fine with that.)

No better way to see NYC @EmpireStateBldg @dalvincook pic.twitter.com/sDAsGfmaQQ
— Woody Johnson (@woodyjohnson4) August 29, 2023

Those predictions fail to take into account that Cook, who allegedly offered $1 million to settle accusations that he physically abused an ex-girlfriend and held her hostage at his residence in a Minneapolis suburb, could get suspended by the NFL at any time. There’s also the strong possibility that Cook, who has only made it through one of his six NFL seasons without missing a game, gets hurt.

Going to the top of the Empire State Building to make Super Bowl predictions is a cocky, blustery move that’s reminiscent of the Rex Ryan-era Jets teams of the early 2010s. Those teams did make the AFC Championship Game twice, but never a Super Bowl. If Cook wants this version of the Jets to fare better, he should be focusing on getting himself on the field and beating the Bills in Week 1, not thinking about playing in Las Vegas in February.

“Yeah, we got the pieces. We just gotta go put it together,” he said. The Jets might, but they also might fall apart.