Quote:
Originally Posted by OldSchool
Fact of the matter is, the odds stacked against the possibility of Brandin Cooks becoming a legitimate #1 WR threat in the sense that guys like Julio Jones, Megatron, AJ Green, Fitzgerald, etc are, are taller than Brandin Cooks is.
I'm going to use the same argument that everyone else uses against drafting interior linemen in the 1st round.
Great slot WRs can be found in the mid to late rounds in the draft. That's especially true in this draft which is the deepest its been in a while, especially at the WR position.
Wes Welker - UDFA
Victor Cruz - UDFA
Randall Cobb - Round 2 Pick 64
Danny Amendola - UDFA
Lance Moore - UDFA
Kendall Wright - 1st round pick 20
Cecil Shorts III - 4th round pick 114
Doug Baldwin - UDFA
T.Y. Hilton - 3rd round, pick 92
etc.
I think you get the picture now.
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How many of those guys put up the college numbers that Brandin Cooks did WHILE playing in a pro style system all three years that he was a starter?
With the exception of Cobb, who made his mark as a kick returner more than anything, very few of those guys had successful college careers.
Cooks has had excellent production while playing for 3 different QBs each year. He's put up 1000+ receiving yards in seasons where he was scrounging for catches with guys like Markus Wheaton, and he also put up ungodly jaw-dropping numbers while he was THE #1 guy getting double-teamed constantly (2013).
The argument I've always been making is that Cooks isn't just some slot guy that can be grabbed at any point. He's much more than that, and I'm willing to bet that he leads rookie WRs in 2014 in production.
That's completely different from rationalizing a pick like Xavier Su'a Filo over a midround guard like Dakota Dozier.