2019 Free Agent Signing Thread (1 Viewer)

[Anarchy99]

I agree with what you guys are saying in regards to Cooks value with Brees, that he might get over drafted.

A few things to consider when projecting for him with the Saints.

The Saints might run the ball less this year as I dont think Murray is as good as Ingram.

Cook has averaged 5.6 targets per game the last 3 seasons. That's 89 over 16 games.

His catch rate has been 63% one of the main problems with Cook has been his inconsistency. He regularly has had high volume of opportunities with different QBs. His QB with the Rams not so good.

With Carr the last 2 years his catch rate has been better. 

Brees is better than Carr so I could see his catch rate being perhaps as good as last season 67%. 

90 targets st 63% is 57 receptions. I see some upside for his efficiency to be higher than that though.

Hard to compare numbers from different teams and then make projections off of that for another team (although what else can people do?).

As far as Murray goes, he averaged 4.2 ypc in OAK while the remaining backs averaged 4.1. He averaged 4.0 ypc in MIN while all other backs averaged 4.2. On the surface, he probably was average production wise vs. the other backs on his teams over his 5 years in the league.

Looking at NOS, Ingram averaged a 4.7 ypc over the past 5 years while all other Saints backs averaged 4.3. So looking across that spectrum, Ingram produced 0.4 ypc better than that grouping as a whole. Kamara has been 0.4 better than Ingram the past 2 seasons. My guess in predicting this situation would be for Kamara to get a few more carries than he has been getting and Murray getting 10 carries instead of the 12 that Ingram got last year.

What I don't see is a return to Brees having a zillion passing attempts again. The Saints have done very well the past two seasons based on running the ball and playing at least passable if not fairly good defensive. I don't see them falling behind consistently and being forced to have Brees go into video game mode. The best way for Cook to have a bigger fantasy impact would be if he turned into a red zone weapon like Ebron did in IND. Not sure that would be something to bank on though, as he hasn't really been that and he's been more of a weapon in space than at the goal line.

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

Source: The #Rams are matching the two-year, $3.25M offer sheet for RFA RB Malcolm Brown, source said. They keep him, the #Lions will keep searching. He gets a $100K signing bonus and $1 million guaranteed.

 

[Biabreakable]

Hard to compare numbers from different teams and then make projections off of that for another team (although what else can people do?).

The point I am trying to make is that Cook has commanded a pretty high number of targets with multiple different QBs and teams.

The high water mark of 101 last season at least in part was due to them trading away Cooper and not having much else to work with, but Cooks targets have been high regardless of the situation if you account for games missed. As he was highly targeted with multiple different teams and QBs at least to me is an indication that he will continue to get a lot of targets with his new team.

His (pro rated) least number of targets over the last 3 seasons was 81 with the Packers (he missed 6 games) and even going back to his time with the Rams 75 targets was the fewest he had.

So I do think it is reasonable to expect that will continue with the Saints and I would project Cook to have 80-100 targets there or a median of 90 which does line up with the 3 year average for Cook as well.

The main thing I have not liked about Cook is his inconsistency and low catch rate. However his catch rate the last two seasons has been better than his career average although still a bit low for a TE.

Brees is more accurate than Carr so I can see Cook maintaining this higher catch rate (for him) he has had recently and if so thats about 60 receptions or 3.75 receptions/game.

Maybe that falls short of TE 4 still and Cook is overdrafted this year. I can see how he could still be good to have this season however.

As far as comparing this to Colby Fleener, I never expected Fleener to be able to do what Graham did with Brees because Fleener isn't that good. He was with Luck who he played with in college prior to that. It does not get any better than it was for Fleener at that time, so no reason to expect Brees to be an improvement.

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

The #Colts may not be done adding edge help: Source said they hosted former #Broncos first-rounder Shane Ray. A day after they added pass-rusher Justin Houston.