Aaron Rodgers is close to an agreement that will bring him back to Green Bay for the 2021 season, but as part of the deal, he wants the team to trade for Randall Cobb. What the … ?
Cobb signed with the Cowboys two years ago, and they traded him to the Texans. He had a decent season in 2019 but became expendable when Dallas drafted CeeDee Lamb. They were able to get Bill O’Brien to take him off their hands.
Cobb wasn’t much of a factor in Houston last year, catching 38 passes for 441 yards and 3 TDs. Five years in a row he’s caught 2-4 TD passes, and he’s finished with fewer than 700 yards in all but one of those seasons.
Cobb is 30 and has a base salary of $8.2 million. He’s not worth that. If the Texans were to release him, he probably wouldn’t be able to find a team that would pay him half as much.
But Trey Wingo writes on Twitter that Rodgers during talks with the team is lobbying to get Cobb brought back to Lambeau. That’s odd. Rodgers and Cobb are apparently friends, but Cobb’s days of being a relevant NFL receiver are in the distant past. If the Texans were able to get the Packers to that that $8.2 million base salary off their payroll, they’d be excited.
This might be little more than Rodgers having the itch to exert some control over the roster. In the past, he’s expressed frustration about the Packers getting rid of Jake Kumerow.
The Packers look pretty set at wide receiver already. Davante Adams is one of the best in the game, and they like Allen Lazard and Marques Valdez-Scantling. They drafted Amari Rodgers in the third round, and the hope is that he’ll develop into a Cobb kind of weapon in the slot.
When Cobb was last playing with the Packers, he wasn’t effective. In his last three years with them (in 2016-2018) he averaged only 4.4 catches for 45 yards in 37 games, with 10 touchdowns. When compared to other wide receivers who played at least half the time in the 2016-18 seasons, that’s below-average production.
| WIDE RECEIVERS PER GAME (2016-18) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Yds | TD | PPR |
| Antonio Brown | 44 | 7.1 | 93.5 | .83 | 21.4 |
| Odell Beckham | 32 | 6.3 | 85.0 | .61 | 18.8 |
| Tyreek Hill | 40 | 5.1 | 75.8 | .75 | 18.3 |
| Julio Jones | 46 | 6.2 | 98.5 | .37 | 18.3 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 47 | 6.1 | 83.1 | .60 | 18.0 |
| Michael Thomas | 47 | 6.8 | 80.6 | .49 | 17.8 |
| Davante Adams | 45 | 5.8 | 72.6 | .79 | 17.8 |
| Mike Evans | 47 | 5.4 | 81.8 | .57 | 17.0 |
| Keenan Allen | 33 | 6.2 | 80.4 | .40 | 16.9 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | 30 | 5.6 | 78.1 | .51 | 16.6 |
| A.J. Green | 35 | 5.3 | 78.2 | .51 | 16.2 |
| Julian Edelman | 28 | 6.1 | 69.9 | .33 | 15.8 |
| Stefon Diggs | 42 | 6.0 | 66.0 | .48 | 15.7 |
| Adam Thielen | 48 | 5.7 | 75.3 | .38 | 15.6 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 46 | 4.9 | 80.1 | .36 | 15.0 |
| Jarvis Landry | 48 | 6.0 | 64.6 | .39 | 15.0 |
| Brandin Cooks | 48 | 4.6 | 72.1 | .44 | 14.8 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 48 | 5.9 | 60.7 | .40 | 14.4 |
| Robert Woods | 39 | 4.9 | 66.1 | .33 | 14.0 |
| Doug Baldwin | 45 | 4.9 | 60.8 | .47 | 13.7 |
| Amari Cooper | 45 | 4.6 | 63.1 | .44 | 13.6 |
| Golden Tate | 47 | 5.5 | 61.2 | .30 | 13.5 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 40 | 4.3 | 61.1 | .45 | 13.1 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 40 | 4.9 | 61.4 | .31 | 13.1 |
| Jordy Nelson | 46 | 4.6 | 53.9 | .51 | 13.1 |
| Marvin Jones | 40 | 3.8 | 63.5 | .45 | 12.8 |
| Dez Bryant | 29 | 4.1 | 56.3 | .51 | 12.8 |
| Demaryius Thomas | 47 | 4.9 | 57.6 | .33 | 12.7 |
| Rishard Matthews | 30 | 3.9 | 58.0 | .43 | 12.3 |
| Allen Robinson | 30 | 4.3 | 55.1 | .34 | 11.9 |
| Sterling Shepard | 43 | 4.4 | 53.2 | .33 | 11.9 |
| Michael Crabtree | 46 | 4.4 | 48.4 | .43 | 11.8 |
| Kenny Golladay | 26 | 3.8 | 59.2 | .31 | 11.6 |
| Tyler Boyd | 30 | 4.3 | 54.4 | .27 | 11.6 |
| Will Fuller | 30 | 3.5 | 51.5 | .47 | 11.5 |
| DeSean Jackson | 41 | 3.6 | 59.7 | .29 | 11.5 |
| Jamison Crowder | 40 | 4.1 | 50.6 | .33 | 11.2 |
| Mike Wallace | 32 | 3.9 | 55.2 | .26 | 11.1 |
| Mohamed Sanu | 46 | 4.2 | 47.7 | .33 | 11.0 |
| Robby Anderson | 43 | 3.6 | 52.2 | .35 | 11.0 |
| Pierre Garcon | 32 | 4.5 | 57.1 | .13 | 10.9 |
| Marqise Lee | 30 | 4.0 | 51.8 | .27 | 10.9 |
| Randall Cobb | 37 | 4.4 | 44.5 | .28 | 10.7 |
| Ted Ginn | 36 | 3.4 | 48.6 | .29 | 10.5 |
| Sammy Watkins | 33 | 3.2 | 46.7 | .39 | 10.4 |
| Tyrell Williams | 48 | 3.2 | 50.8 | .33 | 10.3 |
| Kenny Stills | 47 | 2.9 | 45.2 | .47 | 10.3 |
| Tyler Lockett | 47 | 3.0 | 45.0 | .33 | 10.0 |
| Brandon LaFell | 36 | 3.6 | 42.9 | .31 | 9.7 |
| Adam Humphries | 47 | 4.1 | 44.0 | .18 | 9.6 |
| Devin Funchess | 41 | 3.1 | 42.1 | .37 | 9.6 |
| Quincy Enunwa | 27 | 3.6 | 48.4 | .19 | 9.5 |
| Nelson Agholor | 47 | 3.4 | 39.8 | .33 | 9.5 |
| Kelvin Benjamin | 42 | 3.2 | 47.3 | .26 | 9.5 |
| Corey Davis | 27 | 3.7 | 46.9 | .15 | 9.4 |
| Jordan Matthews | 25 | 3.9 | 43.4 | .16 | 9.2 |
| Cole Beasley | 47 | 3.7 | 38.7 | .26 | 9.2 |
| Taylor Gabriel | 39 | 3.3 | 39.4 | .26 | 9.2 |
| Dontrelle Inman | 33 | 3.3 | 43.9 | .24 | 9.1 |
| DeVante Parker | 38 | 3.6 | 45.3 | .16 | 9.1 |
| Paul Richardson | 24 | 2.8 | 41.9 | .33 | 9.1 |
| Travis Benjamin | 30 | 2.7 | 41.5 | .31 | 9.0 |
| Marquise Goodwin | 39 | 2.8 | 45.8 | .23 | 8.9 |
| Danny Amendola | 30 | 4.0 | 41.1 | .11 | 8.8 |
| Jeremy Maclin | 24 | 3.5 | 40.7 | .21 | 8.8 |
| Chris Hogan | 40 | 2.7 | 41.3 | .30 | 8.7 |
| J.J. Nelson | 26 | 2.3 | 39.3 | .35 | 8.6 |
| Donte Moncrief | 37 | 2.8 | 36.9 | .32 | 8.4 |
| Allen Hurns | 28 | 3.1 | 40.0 | .21 | 8.4 |
| Zay Jones | 28 | 2.9 | 33.7 | .33 | 8.3 |
| Willie Snead | 42 | 3.4 | 39.0 | .13 | 8.1 |
| Kendall Wright | 27 | 3.3 | 38.1 | .15 | 8.0 |
| Albert Wilson | 28 | 2.9 | 33.2 | .25 | 7.9 |
| Josh Doctson | 27 | 2.8 | 35.4 | .26 | 7.9 |
| Jermaine Kearse | 45 | 3.2 | 37.6 | .16 | 7.8 |
| John Brown | 41 | 2.5 | 37.3 | .24 | 7.7 |
| Terrance Williams | 32 | 3.0 | 36.3 | .13 | 7.5 |
| Ryan Grant | 29 | 2.7 | 31.1 | .17 | 6.9 |
| Seth Roberts | 46 | 2.7 | 29.3 | .19 | 6.8 |
| Torrey Smith | 33 | 2.2 | 26.3 | .22 | 6.1 |
| Chris Conley | 37 | 2.4 | 28.1 | .14 | 6.0 |
| Tajae Sharpe | 30 | 2.2 | 27.9 | .13 | 5.9 |
—Ian Allan