By Chris Tomasson

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

SEATTLE — It will be hard to keep Dalvin Cook out of the starting lineup in Week 1.

The Vikings rookie running back carried seven times for 40 yards in Friday night’s 20-13 preseason loss to Seattle at CenturyLink Field. He is seeking to replace the departed Adrian Peterson, who will arrive with the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 11 at U.S. Bank Stadium for the first regular-season game.

“I’m going to keep enjoying the process and I’ll leave it up to the coaches to make that decision,’’ Cook said of the starting job.

Cook’s main competition is Latavius Murray, who has missed the first two preseason games as he continues to recover from surgery last month on his right ankle. Jerick McKinnon has said he’s in the mix to start, but he carried just once Friday for minus-6 yards in his preseason debut.

Cook started the exhibition opener last week at Buffalo, catching four passes for 30 yards but carrying five times for just 13 yards. In his second start Friday, though, Cook had a 5-yard run and two carries of nine yards.

“It felt really good,’’ said Cook, a second-round pick out of Florida State. “We were getting the offensive line some confidence. We were going out there and establishing ourselves early.’’

The Vikings were without a pair of injured offensive line starters in left tackle Riley Reiff and left guard Alex Boone. Still, the first-team Minnesota line did a solid job of clearing room for Cook to run.

“He’s a great back,’’ said right tackle Mike Remmers. “He’s very explosive. He had some good plays out there. I was excited to see it.’’

So was Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford. Although the Vikings only managed three points in the three series played by the first team, Cook helped keep the Seattle defense off balance and Bradford was able to complete 7 of 11 passes for 95 yards.

“It was awesome,’’ Bradford said of Cook’s game. “We’ve seen it all (training) camp just what he’s been able to do. I think that we all know how talented he is, but for him to be able to do that tonight, he was close to breaking a few for some really long runs. But even what he was able to do tonight, it was great to see.’’

About the only thing Cook didn’t do Friday was snare multiple passes. He had one reception for 10 yards.