When Jared Cook was a free agent thinking about the next play to call home this offseason, he might have envisioned plays like the one he made in the second quarter against the Tennessee Titans Sunday in Nashville.
The New Orleans Saints lined up in an empty set, with Cook as one of three receivers to the right side of the formation and stars Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas lined up to the left.
The field was spaced out for quarterback Drew Brees, who started his progression read to the right, then swept back left for Cook on a crossing route. Brees’ throw hit Cook in rhythm beyond the first level of the Titans defense. The big tight end broke a tackle, then followed a block from Kamara all the way to the house for a 61-yard score.
“I feel like it’s something that we needed,” Cook said of his score, which helped the Saints turn around a game in which they trailed by 14 at one point. “… We needed a spark. Drew found me on the back side hash, and I was able to get in thanks to A.K.”
Something that was needed is sort of Cook’s theme this season.
The 61-yard touchdown was a dominant play, and those types of plays are what makes football fun for Cook. With that in mind, he had a lot of fun in Oakland last season putting up the best statistical year of his career, so it was paramount to keep that going.
“I just wanted to find a place that I had an opportunity to do the same thing: Go out there and be a dominant tight end and make plays,” Cook said. “And this was one of the places where i figured I could help most.”
He knew coming into this season that it had been a while since the Saints had a tight end capable of doing the things Cook could do in the passing game.
The Saints’ leading receivers at tight end the last couple years were Ben Watson (400 yards in 2018) and Coby Fleener (295 yards in 2017). The last time a tight end was a true weapon in the passing game in New Orleans was when Watson caught 74 passes for 825 yards in his first stint with the team, in 2015.
“I knew it was the place I could step right in and make a huge impact,” Cook said.
And he has been right about that, especially as the season has gone on.
The opening stanza of Cook’s New Orleans tenure was a bit of a disappointment. Injuries to Brees and Cook himself slowed his development in the offense, and in his first six games in New Orleans Cook caught just 15 passes for 168 yards.
But he has been a revelation since the 2019 season’s midpoint. Starting with a Week 10 game against Atlanta, where he caught six passes for 74 yards, Cook has 26 catches for 493 yards and six touchdowns in his last seven games. He scored two of those touchdowns Sunday against Tennessee — his second multiple-touchdown game in the last three weeks.
The first score was evidence of what happens when you put wide receiver athleticism in a 6-foot-5, 254-pound frame — a giant running with uncommon grace. But the second might’ve been the more scary one for those looking to figure out how to defend the Saints tight end in the coming weeks.
How are you supposed to stop Brees from connecting with Cook when they can do it against perfect coverage anyway?
The Titans had their All-Pro safety, Kevin Byard, lined up in man coverage over the top of Cook with a little more than a minute remaining in the third quarter, and Byard did yeoman’s work locking Cook up after the snap.
But it didn’t matter. Even as Cook fought through the coverage and managed basically zero separation, his veteran quarterback placed the ball where only Cook could get it as the defenders triangulated around him, a pinpoint throw into the tiniest of windows.
“I don’t know how he came down with it,” said receiver Tre’Quan Smith. “The guy was on him like glue. That just shows you, even if he’s covered, he’s not covered. Put it in his vicinity and he’ll catch it. If his hands touch it, he’s going to catch it, and it’s great to have somebody like that in your offense you can depend on.”
Brees and Cook both used the same word to describe how that play came about: Trust.
“He threw it, and that’s the first thing he said when we came to the sideline, ‘I trust you, man,’” Cook said. “I went up and made a play. That’s something we’ve talked about all season: ‘If I need you, just be there for me, I’ll put it up.’ He did that, and he put it in the right spot.”
And that’s where the really wild thought starts to creep in. Sunday’s game against the Titans was just the eighth time they’ve suited up together in the same game. What if plays like that second touchdown are evidence that Brees and Cook are just starting to show off what they’re capable of together?
Cook envisioned plays like that 61-yard score when he first signed with New Orleans, and now he’s envisioning even more from himself as he continues to develop his rapport with his quarterback and his offense.
What does that even look like?
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December 24, 2019 at 05:57AM
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Jared Cook found a place where he could dominate in New Orleans, just like he thought - NOLA.com
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