Why Won't Jared Cook be a Top 2 TE in 2020? (1 Viewer)

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It took Cook a while to understand SP's offense and get into sync with Brees. Once he did, there was no better TE in the league.

In Cook's last 7 games, he scored 7 TDs and had over 540 yards in receptions. Play that out over a full year and that would result in nearly 1,200 yards and 15 TDs. That's better than Kelce. Actually Kelce had a little over 1,250 yards last year, but Cook had more TDs than Kelce, 9 to 5.

As we move forward into 2020, the Saints added Sanders, a healthy Kamara and another major asset that few are discussing because of our excitement about his development into a QB1, Taysom Hill. As discussed in the past, when the Saints tried to get Hill more active in receiving in mid 2018, Hill had trouble adjusting to the speed of the ball in flight. Hill fixed that in the offseason and became a pretty disruptive receiver especially in the seam and we all know the fun only begins when Hill starts to run with the ball.

No one has to be told it takes double coverage to at least slow Mike Thomas down. Shut him down? No one does that. MT is just too good. Sanders was a lethal move. Here's Sanders stats when he had a legit dominant WR1 on the other side, Demarius Thomas - now MT.

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And we will very likely have the top RB WR in the league back healthy in Kamara.

A LB can't guard Cook nor can a safety. Those are mismatches. With all the other extreme receiving talent on the 2020 team, how will teams double cover Cook? And we all know Brees loves him those tall strong WRs. That's "choose your poison decisions" for defenses. Can anyone tell me why Cook won't put up 1.200 yards and 15 TDs this year?

I think it will be 1,200 yards and 10-14 TDs, #1 TE1 type numbers because Hill will grab a few of those TDs playing TE type role. If not, I'd bet Cook at 15 plus TDs
 
He’s absolutely being slept on.

The only two reasons he won’t/wouldn’t be near the top of the league in production are:

1. health

2. Number of options in this offense.

It’s crazy to think how many options this offense has right now.

1. MT
2. AK
3. Sanders
4. Cook
5. Taysom

And that’s before we consider guys like Trautman, TQS, Murray, etc.

Adding Sanders to the mix changes our offense so much. It will likely reduce the number of targets Cook receives. But the offense as a whole is going to be ridiculous.
 
Well, these could be factors -

Age - Cook is 33 years old. About the age where even the best skill players begin to see serious declines in their game.

Injury history - https://sportsinjurypredictor.com/player/jared-cook/74 . Cook has been relatively durable but has been on the injury report with concussions and lower leg injuries the last four seasons.

Adam Trautman - should take some of the load and targets off of Cook. Trautman has excellent hands and at 6’ 5” 253 lb he my see the field a lot more than Cook as a blocker.
 
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Way too many other target options and formations that do not include him. He will certainly have some big weeks, but he is not in the top tier of TEs--real life or fantasy.

You are likley right. But one tendency we have seen is that when Brees gets a big WR who he gets in sync, he feeds that WR over and over, aka Jimmy G and MT
 
I hope if his numbers don't increase or decline a bit it's because of the Sanders effect or hoping its because Trautman is having a Jimmy Graham type of rookie year which was pretty solid.
 
Let's answer the original question. Cook will not be a top 2 TE because of Kittle, Ertz, Kelce, and others. That doesn't mean he won't be effective. It's just that there are even better TEs in the league. Furthermore, Thomas and Sanders will take away potential catches from Cook. So will Kamara and Taysom Hill. He could be a top 5 TE but not a top 2 in my view.
 
I think adding Sanders opens this offense up so much. Teams can no longer double/triple MT and then focus on AK. Sanders is a legit #2, something we haven’t had in a very long time. I think this will open up thing for MT even more because we all know he could beat double coverage and win, now with defenses more evenly spread he will be seeing more single coverage or teams will be playing heavy zone which Drew can pick apart.
 
Sanders is a 1000 yard WR, Kamara is bound to have improve stats, and Trautman may take some snaps from Cook. All are good reasons to expect Cook’s stats to reduce a bit.
 
Cook will eat it’s not the volume but his efficiency. He doesn’t have to get any more targets then that past season if we can get the Cook we got at the end of the season.

He would have been a 1,000 yard receiver and 10-12 TDs .
Think of Cook in this offense like the Broncos used J.Thomas with Thomas welled and Sanders He was the the best #4 option in the NFL always had 10 + TDS but his YPC was horrible Cook on the other hand is the perfect player on that role because he’s so explosive and doesn’t need to be featured
 
Why should we expect a guy at that age that’s never done it in his career to do it on a team loaded with receiving options?
 
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