The Tennessee Titans have a lot of up and coming offensive players on this young team, though not many people may know it. I’ve been posting stats from PFF’s three year collection they’ve been doing at every position because, whether good or bad, Titan players keep popping up. For today’s Titan making an appearance on PFF’s “ Three Years of Yards Per Route Run: Tight Ends” list, we have Jared Cook.
The Titans traded up with the New England Patriots to acquire Cook and so far it has been real hit or miss. Cook finally appeared to be breaking out at the end of this last season and all the Titans fans are hoping that he carries his hot streak into this next season. Whether that happens or not, Cook has rated out as one of the top TE’s in the league for yards/route ratio.
Via PFF:
| Rank | Player | Current Team | Yards | Routes | Yards/Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jimmy Graham | NO | 1815 | 786 | 2.31 |
| 2 | Rob Gronkowski | NE | 2196 | 961 | 2.29 |
| 3 | Antonio Gates | SD | 2810 | 1321 | 2.13 |
| 4 | Jermichael Finley | GB | 1950 | 971 | 2.01 |
| 5 | Vernon Davis | SF | 2963 | 1499 | 1.98 |
| 6 | Jason Witten | DAL | 3099 | 1665 | 1.86 |
| 7 | Aaron Hernandez | NE | 1665 | 902 | 1.85 |
| 8 | Jeremy Shockey | FA | 1515 | 840 | 1.80 |
| 9 | Brent Celek | PHI | 2374 | 1318 | 1.80 |
| 10 | Evan Moore | CLE | 804 | 453 | 1.77 |
| 11 | Dallas Clark | TB | 1985 | 1122 | 1.77 |
| 12 | Fred Davis | WAS | 1620 | 918 | 1.76 |
| 13 | Jared Cook | TEN | 1194 | 694 | 1.72 |
| 14 | Marcedes Lewis | JAC | 1668 | 970 | 1.72 |
| 15 | Owen Daniels | HOU | 1722 | 1022 | 1.68 |
Cook is a huge, athletic TE who has all the potential to be one of the best in the league. Why he has yet to live up to that potential is the real question thus far. Is it due to a lack of studying and practicing his routes? An ever changing playbook? Or perhaps he’s just not that good.
I don’t think it’s that last one. Cook should be a monster and I fully expect him to grow into the TE the Titans drafted him to be. Before this past year, TE’s were primarily used as blocking tools for the Titans as the passing game took a back seat to the run game. It’s not like that anymore. The Titans have a pass game and you can count on them cashing in on it this year.
Here’s to Cookie continuing to blossom.
As a fun side note, both former Titan TE’s Daniel Graham and Alge Crumpler come in on the list for the worst yards/route ratio, with Graham being number one.
You can find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart