Dalvin Cook at least knows exactly what not to do.
Cook, who signed with the Jets this offseason, and last year’s second-round pick Breece Hall, who shined as a rookie before tearing his ACL, were expected to make the team’s running game one of their biggest strengths this season as a two-headed monster.
But the Jets have rushed for just 274 yards, the 10th-fewest in the league, and one touchdown this season. Hall has recorded a respectable 154 rushing yards and is averaging 5.9 yards per carry, which is eighth-best in the league. Nevertheless, 83 of Hall’s yards came on one rush.
Cook has struggled with his new team, and has just 58 rushing yards while averaging 2.3 yards per carry, failing to demonstrate the explosion he possessed throughout six seasons with the Vikings.
“Don’t panic,” Cook told The Post after practice on Friday. “That’s the first thing to not do. Don’t panic. There’s a lot of football ahead. I’ve played a lot of football in this league, I’ve had slow starts a few years, but just don’t panic, stick to your routine.”
The Jets have just 66 rushing attempts this season, and often don’t even get a chance to establish themselves on the ground.
Head coach Robert Saleh has repeatedly pointed to game flow, constantly falling behind quickly and needing to pass in order to cut a deficit.
After the Jets’ Week 2 loss to the Cowboys, Hall took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted, then deleted, four footballs, seemingly representing the four carries he got in the game. Hall also said, “I only got four touches, that’s why we struggled,” before subsequently getting a season-high 12 carries in the Week 3 loss to the Patriots.
“You always get frustrated when you’re losing games and you’re coming to work every day and trying to get better and you’re not getting the result that you want,” Hall told The Post on Friday. “… We’re all here to win. Dalvin’s been a great leader, he’s been a great help for me.
“As far as the carries go, I feel like nothing’s really changed for either of us. We just go as the game goes. Whenever you’re on a team you want to help out as much as you can. But at the end of the day, we got good players all around this roster. You just gotta take what you get and run with it.”
Both Cook and Hall admitted their starts to the season have been frustrating.
But they believe that frustration can soon reap needed rewards.
“It’s good to be frustrated, it means you care,” Cook said. “It means you care about what you do, you care about who you let down, who you disappoint. It’s OK to be frustrated, but it’s how you deal with it. For me, I just go back to work, I just dig deeper into myself, what can I do better?”
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