Jared Cook sure did a nice job of getting downfield for chunk plays last year. He caught 9 TDs, and over half of them came from outside the red zone. He ended up averaging 16.4 yards per catch, which is a figure that even Rob Gronkowski never reached in his career.
Only 24 tight ends, in fact, have averaged even 14 yards per catch in the last 20 years. (At least among those with at least 40 catches).
In the case of the Saints, they pepper defenses with short balls to Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas. They’re sliding the chess pieces around, and when they get the right look, they go for the knockout punch to Cook.
Cook isn’t a huge part of that offense; he averaged only 3 catches per game last year. But he comes through with some impactful, downfield catches. I expect he’ll outperform the free agent wide receiver they just picked up, Emmanuel Sanders.
If you want to find a tight end averaging even more yards than Cook you have to go back to 1997, with Rickey Dudley of the Raiders. He also averaged 16.4, but if you look at the numbers more closely, his 16.4 is slightly larger (by less than two hundredths of an inch).
Cook really came on in the second half of last season, after coming back from a sprained ankle. He caught 29 passes for 537 yards and 7 TDs in his final eight games, with a 61-yard touchdown at Tennessee and 26- and 38-yard touchdowns early in that shootout against the 49ers. Cook averaged 19.2 yards per catch in the second half of the season.
| TIGHT ENDS AVERAGING 14 YARDS PER CATCH | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2019 | Jared Cook, N.O. | 43 | 705 | 16.40 | 9 |
| 2013 | Vernon Davis, S.F. | 52 | 850 | 16.35 | 13 |
| 2015 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 72 | 1176 | 16.33 | 11 |
| 2010 | Vernon Davis, S.F. | 56 | 914 | 16.32 | 7 |
| 2004 | Alge Crumpler, Atl. | 48 | 774 | 16.13 | 6 |
| 2008 | Tony Scheffler, Den. | 40 | 645 | 16.13 | 3 |
| 2001 | Marcus Pollard, Ind. | 47 | 739 | 15.72 | 8 |
| 2017 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 69 | 1084 | 15.71 | 8 |
| 2018 | George Kittle, S.F. | 88 | 1377 | 15.65 | 5 |
| 2010 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 50 | 782 | 15.64 | 10 |
| 2011 | Jared Cook, Ten. | 49 | 759 | 15.49 | 3 |
| 2014 | Coby Fleener, Ind. | 51 | 774 | 15.18 | 8 |
| 2017 | Vernon Davis, Was. | 43 | 648 | 15.07 | 3 |
| 2010 | Todd Heap, Balt. | 40 | 599 | 14.98 | 5 |
| 2011 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 90 | 1327 | 14.74 | 17 |
| 2009 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 79 | 1157 | 14.65 | 8 |
| 2018 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 47 | 682 | 14.51 | 3 |
| 2012 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 55 | 790 | 14.36 | 11 |
| 2015 | Greg Olsen, Car. | 77 | 1104 | 14.34 | 7 |
| 2016 | Jimmy Graham, Sea. | 65 | 923 | 14.20 | 6 |
| 2008 | Visanthe Shiancoe, Min. | 42 | 596 | 14.19 | 7 |
| 2013 | Jimmy Graham, N.O. | 86 | 1215 | 14.13 | 16 |
| 2014 | Delanie Walker, Ten. | 63 | 890 | 14.13 | 4 |
| 2019 | Noah Fant, Den. | 40 | 562 | 14.05 | 3 |
—Ian Allan