Oakland Raiders - Fantasy News

Jared Cook 2017 Fantasy Projections

by Adam Markowitz

8/11/17

NFL

Oakland Raiders

Jared Cook

Fantasy footballers have fallen into the Jared Cook trap one too many times. While he has shown flashes of having the talent of a legitimate top-tier tight end, he falls back to earth every time you think he's ready to take that next step into fantasy relevance.

The 2016 season was a frustrating one for Cook. He was limited to just 10 games in his one season with the Green Bay Packers, and he caught just 30 passes for 377 yards and a score.

But he was much better in the playoffs, hauling in 18 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns in three games. Now with the Oakland Raiders, Cook could be an awfully intriguing fantasy option in his new environment in 2017.

Why Jared Cook Will Be A 2017 Fantasy Football Sleeper

Most would assume that Cook's days of being even a top 30 fantasy tight end are over. We aren't so sure, though.

Oakland threw a whopping 90 passes in the red zone last season, 14 of which went to tight ends. If Derek Carr had a bunch of big bodies to work with, perhaps he would have thrown the ball more often to his tight ends and less often to Seth Roberts and Michael Crabtree—two of the NFL's most targeted red zone threats. Cook should eat into the red zone productivity of both this fall.

That really makes you wonder where the tight end is going to slot into this lineup. He'll be splitting time and reps with Clive Walford, who had his best season last year with 359 yards and three touchdowns (4.69 Dober Fantasy Points per game). That said, Cook is probably the more talented of the two tight ends. So even if he doesn't get all of the reps, those two- and three-tight end sets in the red zone could be where Cook makes his money.

Why Jared Cook Will Be A 2017 Fantasy Football Dud

There aren't a boatload of mouths to feed in the Oakland offense, but Crabtree and Amari Cooper are going to get theirs for sure. Let's also not forget that the Raiders brought in Lee Smith from Buffalo in the offseason to add further depth to the tight end spot. A couple of shaky showings, and Cook could find himself on the bench quite a bit if he's even active at all for the Raiders.

Cook also started showing signs of slowing down last year in Green Bay. He had nine red zone targets in 10 games with the Packers but only turned that into one touchdown, and much of that was because he lacked explosiveness once he had the ball in his hands.

The Oakland offense isn't nearly as vertical as Green Bay’s, and that's why this fit seems a little odd to us. Cook is a veteran and a nice route runner, but he isn't going to have the ability to really do a lot of damage after he catches the ball like Walford or even Mychal Rivera.

Thus, it's time to bring up the ugly phrase "touchdown dependent." Cook's success in Dober NFL matchups will simply come down to whether he reaches the end zone or not, and that will set him up for more setbacks than victories against comparable players. He has just one touchdown in his last two seasons in spite of the fact that he has had ample opportunities inside the 20-yard line. The incredibly low floor and the limited ceiling make Cook a tough cookie to trust in 2017.