Tight end has ability to be next big threat
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has a new toy on offense this season — and we’re not talking about a stout, punishing running back who seldom speaks publicly.
Tight end Jared Cook is an imposing, swift tight end who talks in a deep monotone. He carries none of Marshawn Lynch’s star power or name recognition, but early returns suggest Cook also will make an impact in Oakland.
Carr threw five passes toward Cook in Sunday’s season-opening victory against Tennessee. Cook caught all five, for 56 yards. This haul included plays on which Carr threw the ball just as Cook made his break.
Their timing was exceptional, in other words — no easy feat for a quarterback and receiver playing together for the first time in a regularseason game.
“It felt like our rapport, which we worked on all offseason, was paying off,” Cook said. “It’s what we talked about and worked on in the offseason, so going into the game is just like clockwork. That’s why you practice, so you’re in game-like situations and it can be flawless.”
Cook, 30, looks and moves like an elite athlete — 6-foot-5, 254 pounds and too fast for many NFL linebackers. He spent four years with the Titans, three with the Rams and one with the Packers before signing with the Raiders as a free agent in March.
The temptation to chase a playoff spot was part of the lure. Cook didn’t reach the postseason in his first seven years as a pro, then helped Green Bay advance to the NFC Championship Game last season. He made a memorable 35-yard, tiptoe-along-thesideline catch in the Packers’ divisional-round victory over Dallas.
He joined an Oakland offense fresh off an impressive 2016 season, in which Carr and Co. ranked sixth in the league in total offense (373.3 yards per game) and seventh in scoring (26 points per game). Oakland then added Lynch and Cook, among others, to join Carr and wide receivers Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree.
Head coach Jack Del Rio candidly said in training camp, “We haven’t really gotten our tight-end position going as much as I’d like.” Enter Cook, a more dangerous receiver than blocking-minded tight end Lee Smith and more experienced than Clive Walford.
Cook has 308 career catches, including 17 for touchdowns. He missed six games last season with an ankle injury, but then led the Packers with 18 catches in their three playoff games.
And now he’s making a smooth transition to the Raiders, in part because Cook apparently is embracing his blocking duties more than he did earlier in his career. At least that’s left tackle Donald Penn’s take.
“He’s really taking accountability on run blocking — putting his nose in there and fighting, battling,” Penn said. “That’s something he didn’t really do earlier in his career; he wasn’t a big run blocker.
“Now when we throw him in there, he’s fighting and doing everything we need him to do that he didn’t do in the past. He’s doing whatever he can to help us win, not just catching passes. I love that about him.”
Carr traced Cook’s assimilation to his easygoing personality in the locker room. They each are married with kids, so they quickly connected on that front.
Cook grew up in Georgia and played in college at South Carolina. He maintains ties to those stops, as evidenced in a basketball tournament at his alma mater — the Jared Cook Tip-Off Classic at North Gwinnett High — and his Twitter profile, in which he identifies himself as “forever Gamecock No. 84.”
These days, he’s No. 87 on the Raiders — suddenly giving Carr another option if opponents devote too much attention to Cooper and Crabtree. The Jets could discover this Sunday at the Coliseum.
“Cook just brings another weapon on a team that already has a ton of weapons,” Jets head coach Todd Bowles said. “He can run, he can catch the ball, he can run routes. He does a lot of things for them.”