Having the ability to stretch
Cook will help Packers’ offense create mismatches
Green Bay — Regardless of whether they stayed home or reached the open market, it was a pretty good year to be a free-agent tight end.
Combine the NFL’s hunger for big players who can run down the middle of the field with the reality that the tight end options in the draft make many scouts go, ‘Meh’, and you almost understand why the Indianapolis Colts gave fifth-year tight end Dwayne Allen a four-year, $29.45 million extension despite limited production (16 catches in 13 games last season).
You see why the New Orleans Saints grabbed the Colts’ other tight end, Coby Fleener, at a price of $36 million for five years. And why Pittsburgh signed San Diego’s Ladarius Green for four years, $20 million.
And you get why New England czar Bill Belichick traded a fourthround pick (and got a sixth-round pick in return) to Chicago for Martellus Bennett, who probably was going to get cut if the Bears couldn’t trade him.
Belichick is willing to take on a potential headache in Bennett for the same reason the others spent big bucks this off-season and the Green Bay Packers took a $2.75 million chance on former Rams tight end Jared Cook.
They all want a tight end who can stretch the field.
“Over the past couple of years everybody’s been getting that hybrid guy out there,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano said at the NFL owners meetings last week. “It’s a huge mismatch for everybody.
“When you face guys like Fleener and Allen, (Rob) Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham, who’s up in Seattle now (and) wreaked havoc for so long, you have to make a decision when they put those guys out on the field how you’re going to defend them. It
makes it extremely difficult for a defense.”
The Packers signed Cook because he’s a former college wide receiver who grew into a 6-foot-5, 254-pound threat able to line up as a receiver or as an in-line blocker. Cook ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds at 246 pounds at the NFL combine in 2009.
There’s a good chance that the strength of coach Mike McCarthy’s offense, provided Jordy Nelson comes back healthy, will be his wide receivers. If Ty Montgomery also returns healthy, Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis continue to grow and Randall Cobb gets back to being the perfect Nelson complement, McCarthy would be able to survive at tight end with lumbering 6-4, 257-pound Richard Rodgers and receiving prospects Kennard Backman, Justin Perillo and Mitchell Henry.
Nelson can run some of the same routes a tight end can and Janis would be a candidate to do so also.
“I think you’ve got to have somebody that’s capable of running down the field; if it happens to be the tight end position, great,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin. “But you’ve got to be able to attack the field vertically for a lot of reasons — for easy yards and points, to loosen the underneath defense.”
In McCarthy’s case, he always has loved the versatility of tight ends, and the chance to get a rare athlete like Cook was a no-brainer, even if his numbers weren’t that great the past two years and the Rams gave up on him. The position is becoming more important.
Last year in the NFL, tight ends were targeted more times (3,863), caught more passes (2,519) and produced more receiving yards (27,584) than in any of the past five seasons, according to STATS. Tight ends caught 211 touchdown passes, the third-highest total during that span.
The percentage of all targeted throws that went to tight ends in ’15 was the highest in three years, although tight ends accounted for a lower percentage of all receiving touchdowns (25.06) than in any of the past five years.
Teams want that player who is both big enough to block on a run play and fast enough to beat a linebacker or safety down the field. It’s the answer to the specialized personnel groupings defensive coaches have developed in order to better defend against the pass.
Put a tight end and a fullback or two tight ends in the game and the defense is going to play its base personnel. Put an extra wide receiver on the field and the defense is going to replace a linebacker with an extra cornerback.
If you have a Gronkowski or Allen or Bennett, you can move that tight end around and cause amismatch. If the defense removes a linebacker and goes to its nickel package, the tight end goes in-line and the offense runs the ball. If the defense sticks with its base, the tight end lines up as a receiver and dares a linebacker or big safety to cover him.
“You’re looking for as many weapons as you can,” Chargers coach Mike McCoy said. “I think the tight end position is one of those spots where you’re trying to get a mismatch up on a linebacker.
“It’s a position where it’s either a linebacker or a safety. That’s where you’ve seen us move Antonio (Gates) all around. It’s not easy to find guys like Antonio.”
In fact, the Chargers let Allen go to Pittsburgh and re-signed the 35year-old Gates for $11 million over two years. They want the guaranteed production from a future Hall of Famer rather than the potential production from Allen.
The Packers didn’t get much production down the field from Rodgers, who ranked 28th in yards per catch (8.79) among tight ends with at least 32 receptions last year. During the regular season, Rodgers had only five catches of 20 or more yards and one was a 61-yard Hail Mary that won the Detroit game.
Compare that to Rodgers’ predecessor, Jermichael Finley, and there’s a big difference. Finley had only one year when he averaged fewer than 12 yards per reception.
Cook’s assignment will be to replicate some of what Finley did for McCarthy’s offense. But he has to be willing to block as a tight end, fullback and third-down protector. And after ranking in the top 10 among tight ends in drops last year (four), he has to be more reliable with his hands.
“I think you’ve seen the history of tight ends become successful in this Packer offense from the past,” Cook said after signing with the Packers. “I think I bring the same sort of skill set, if not anything better and I just want to come in and just work hard and build a rapport with the quarterback and the rest of the players on the offense and just get better.”
The Packers are counting on it.