Jared Cook is only 28 years old.
If you didn’t look him up, you’d probably never guess that. Cook is a tight end that has seemingly had extreme expectations every year since entering the league, yet he has never fulfilled them.
Cook was a third-round pick in the 2009 draft by the Titans, showing speed (4.5 40-yard dash) and size (6-5, 250 pounds) that led many to believe he could be a game changer. However, he never had more than four touchdowns in his four seasons with Tennessee and failed to break 700 receiving yards in three years with the Rams. Last season, he played in all 16 games, yet finished with just 39 receptions for 481 yards and zero touchdowns.
The Packers have been in need for a game breaker at tight end since Jermichael Finley and they are hoping Cook can bring a little spark, signing him to a one-year deal worth $2.75 million with close to $1 million in incentives.
Even Finley came out and said that Cook could be a “great fit for the Packers.”
Cook has never lived up to potential, but who can fault him with the quarterbacks he’s had? In three seasons with the Rams, his QBs were Sam Bradford, Kellen Clemens, Austin Davis, Shaun Hill, Nick Foles and Case Keenum. Okay.
At Tennessee, he had Kerry Collins, Vince Young, Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker.
How much more needs to be said? Cook will be playing with Aaron Rodgers this season, the master of improvisation, and annually one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Improvising worked plenty for Rodgers and tight end Richard Rodgers last season. Aaron would often toss it up to the big tight end and he’d come down with it, and Richard ended up with eight touchdowns.
But the buzz on Cook is gone. Almost everyone has been burned by him from a fantasy perspective, always hoping he can be the breakout, sleeper tight end that could help pave the way to championships.
The issue of course is that Richard Rodgers is still on the roster. And then the Packers will have Jordy Nelson back from injury, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams to go with Eddie Lacy and James Starks out of the backfield. The return of Nelson immediately makes Green Bay’s receiving core elite again.
Will there be enough targets to go around for Cook? Probably not. But on the other end of that, he is slightly taller and much faster than Rodgers. If he can form a role in this offense, there will be opportunities for him to succeed.
With secondaries having to focus on Nelson deep and Cobb underneath, Cook should see single coverage on every down and that’s when he can bust open through the seam down the field.
Yes, he was a major disappointment last year, but the Rams quarterbacks had just 11 total passing touchdowns between Foles and Keenum. Aaron Rodgers is a completely different animal and if Cook is open, Rodgers will find him.
Sure, if Cook drops a couple passes, Rodgers will probably stop looking his way and that will be the end of that. But on the chance that Cook plays up to his skill-set, there’s no telling what his ceiling will be.
At this point, Cook is far down on the tight end consensus rankings at FantasyPros, which isn’t too big of a surprise. That will probably change as we get closer to the season and Mike McCarthy or Rodgers touts how good Cook has looked.
Cook is far from a tight end you can trust, but it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to grab him for cheap or in the late rounds and keep him on your fantasy roster for the first month or so. If he doesn’t do well, so be it. But if he forms a connection with Rodgers, he could be a touchdown threat every week.
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