Dalvin Cook's Top FA Landing Spots After Ezekiel Elliott's Reported Patriots Contract

At least one potential Dalvin Cook suitor is off the board.

The New England Patriots are signing veteran Ezekiel Elliott, taking away one of the teams that has had rumored interest in Cook.

So who's left?

Well, the two teams that have been linked to Cook most frequently, by far, are the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.

The Jets already have two good running backs in Breece Hall and Michael Carter, so Cook would absolutely be a surplus to requirements in the backfield. But if the team is serious about stacking playmakers around new quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Cook would provide another threat.

The Dolphins make far more sense, however. Cook would be a significant upgrade on both Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson Jr., giving the team one of the scariest offenses in the NFL with wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle already stretching defenses for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

That offense would be scary. Miami's offense was fourth in football last season (4,765 yards through the air) but ranked just 26th in rushing offense (1,686 yards). Cook, meanwhile, has rushed for at least 1,000 yards in four straight seasons and has hit double-digit touchdowns in three of the past four years.

Miami is the most natural fit. After visiting the team, however, Cook remain unsigned. Ditto for the Jets. Could a mystery team eventually emerge?

It's hard to pinpoint which team could sneak out from the shadows.

There are two teams that maybe, possibly, sort of make sense as potential Cook suitors, though neither has been regularly linked to him.

The first is the Arizona Cardinals. He'd be a nice upgrade over James Conner and the Cardinals should have around an estimated $23.4 million in cap space once they trim the roster down to 51 players, according to Spotrac.

But are the Cardinals really going to contend this season? Kyler Murray will miss a chunk of the year as he recovers from his ACL tear, and his future with the organization may be in question anyway. Should this Cardinals team be using big resources on a win-now running back, or considering the possibility of an all-out rebuild?

Probably the latter.

Staying in the NFC West, making a splashy signing on Cook is just the sort of thing the Los Angeles Rams would have done in the past, and they probably could scrounge up the cap space to make it work this year, too.

But Cam Akers has potential, and the Rams indicated they may be moving past the splashy moves—at least for now, after last year's disastrous season—when they traded Jalen Ramsey to the Dolphins this summer.

Perhaps either the Cardinals or Rams could be convinced to do a one-year deal for Cook. If that's all his market is offering, however, it feels more likely he'd take such a deal with the Dolphins, assuming the money was close.