Quote:
Originally Posted by Palo
He was an interesting prospect out of college. He had an amazing ability to fight for the ball that reminded me of Steve Smith Sr. Unfortunately, the problem with that is if he was fighting for balls in college because he couldn't get open there how the heck is he supposed to succeed in the NFL?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eltbus
cooks was screwed once they traded everyone and he became the number one option. He's much better as a secondary choice rather than the primary. He's too much of a slanker for that but still a great weapon, just not as the #1
The Saints traded up for him like they thought they were getting Odell Beckham. Instead they got a guy who's fast but can't get separation from physical coverage and has no catch radius. The pick they traded to move up for him was used on a receiver who might be better than him. And worse yet, the Saints drafted so badly he's the ONLY player left from the 2014 class. And that's why the college scouting department was fired this offseason.
That decision, and the early success of their 2015 rookies, led me to research their drafting. In nine years of drafting with the Payton-Loomis team (06-14), they picked exactly one player in the first round who has returned value above expectation for his draft slot. IIRC they did pretty poorly in the second and third rounds, too, but I haven't fully crunched the numbers (probably will for a Zone Reads column).