There are so many great wide receivers from the 2014 NFL Draft class, fantasy owners need a rolodex to keep track of them all. Good luck trying to find one of those in 2016.
On Fantasy Pros’ very early rankings list, five of the top 25 players are wide receivers from the ’14 draft class. To be clear, that’s not five of the top 25 wide receivers … that’s five of the top 25 overall.
Included in that list, but definitely the runt of the litter is New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Although he isn’t a potential top three selection like Odell Beckham Jr. or as big and fast as Mike Evans or Sammy Watkins, Cooks has shown flashes of WR1 potential. He does, however, need to show more “boom” in 2016 to fulfill that potential, otherwise, owners should feel much more comfortable with Cooks as their WR2.
The 23-year-old was arguably ahead of Beckham and the other rookie receivers two years ago just because of the fact he played in the Saints potent offense, but an injury his first year hurt his fantasy value. Cooks played just 10 games in 2014, catching 53 passes for 550 yards and three touchdowns.
Despite the shortened season, Cooks showed what he could do with Drew Brees as his quarterback on several occasions. He caught a 50-yard touchdown pass in late October against the Packers on Sunday Night Football. Cooks also had three other receptions, including another touchdown, longer than 30 yards.
While fully healthy in 2015, these kinds of long plays came even more often for Cooks. He had three touchdown receptions that went for longer than 50 yards last season. The 22-year-old also had four other receptions go for at least 30 yards.
With the potential to make these types of plays, one would think Cooks would be among the leaders in yards per reception, but he surprisingly wasn’t. In both of his first two seasons, the Saints receiver ranked outside the top 40 in yards per catch. Cooks was 45th in that category a year ago, averaging 13.5 yards per reception.
His big plays down the field are great, but they don’t come often enough to offset some of the poor statistical outings that he will occasionally post. That was never more evident than it was during the final five games last season.
Over the final five weeks, he had 29 catches, 402 yards and three touchdowns, which is pretty solid overall. But 351 of those yards and all three scores came in three games. Cooks combined for eight catches, 51 yards and no scores in the other two contests.
Cooks’ longest catch of his career, a 71-yard reception, came during that stretch, but in total, his yards per catch over the five games was still just 13.9.
The three 100-yard games in the final month of the season is definitely reassuring that Cooks can step up and be counted on to be a pretty solid WR2. His potential for long catches should also cause owners to give him looks as a low-end WR1 in very deep leagues.
Furthermore, the 84 catches is also nice in PPR leagues, but ultimately, Cooks needs to “boom” more often to be a true threat as a WR1 like the receivers from his same draft class. At the very least, he needs to be more consistent, raising that yards per catch average closer to 16.0. If he doesn’t, Cooks should remain a boom or bust WR2.
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