They Went to Jared: Raiders add Cook to Bolster Offense

Ken Kelly

The Raiders addressed their apparent void at tight end this week by adding eight-year veteran Jared Cook, most formerly of the Packers.  Cook will now join his fourth team after stints in Tennessee, St. Louis and his one year with Green Bay in 2016.  This move has some dynasty ramifications, so let’s go through the players affected by the signing.

Jared Cook, TE OAK

The 29-year old Cook will look to build on a solid playoff run with Green Bay that saw him post 18 catches for 229 yards and two touchdowns in just three playoff games. Considering he posted just 30 catches for 377 yards and one touchdown in the regular season, that late season eruption is worth noting. The bigger question is if the light has suddenly turned on for Cook or if he was simply the beneficiary of playing with a ridiculously hot Aaron Rodgers.

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Cook has always had talent but has mostly been a dynasty league tease as his 6’5″, 254-pound body has produced more inconsistency than dynasty league production.  In fact, over his eight seasons, he has been able to post just 303 catches, 3,880 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns, despite having what many believe to be near-elite athleticism –  that’s good for an average fantasy season consisting of 38 catches, 485 receiving yards and two touchdowns. That’s, well, average by any definition.

The good news is Cook finds himself in a great situation in Oakland.  Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree will continue to occupy secondaries and the Raiders seem destined to find another running back defenses have to key on as well.  While Oakland may not have as much talent as Green Bay all the way around, their offensive line is one of the best in the league and Cook won’t need to be used to block as much as he would on other teams – that’s an important point to remember.  All of this combined should allow Cook to make the most of his opportunity and put him squarely in the TE2 conversation next season. As we’ve seen in the past, expecting more should come with extreme caution. He also turns 30 here soon, so owners shouldn’t overpay for his services.

Clive Walford, TE OAK

Walford was thought to be the tight end of the future in Oakland.  However, his production over his first two years in the league has been less than stellar. Last year was simply a mess as he posted just 33 catches for 359 yards and three touchdowns, hardly fantasy roster worthy. In fact, outside of his week two performance against Atlanta, Walford failed to record more than three catches or 43 receiving yards in a single other game. The signing of Cook shows the Raiders see exactly what we have in Walford – a player who really isn’t quite ready for the big stage. You could make a case for holding on here but many owners will be cutting bait with Walford, even with Cook on a short-term deal.

Derek Carr, QB OAK

With Cook, Cooper and Crabtree (seems like a lot of C’s with Carr here), the Raiders are stocked with opportunities to maximize any weaknesses in a defense.  Carr took a huge step forward and while duplicating those stats will be difficult, getting another talented player never hurts.  Perhaps they’ll add another “C” with Christian McCaffrey or Dalvin Cook in the upcoming draft and really put a stranglehold on the early alphabet.  If not, perhaps they’ll get Carshawn Lynch or Cadrian Peterson to shore up their running game.

Martellus Bennett, TE GB

With Cook completely out of the picture in Green Bay, Bennett has every opportunity to be successful with the Packers.  We discussed his golden (or yellow) opportunity earlier this week.

The ADP of all three of these tight ends will be very interesting to watch moving forward.  Expect this chart below to look a lot different after our ADP is updated after this month’s mock drafts.

chart 2 9

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ken kelly