Pros And Cons Positional Review Part Three (#FantasyFootball)

It’s been a full season that has passed us by, and still, I can’t think of two more Players that receive as much praise and hatred at the same time…

Fine readers of the Going For 2 fanbase my name is @TheBLeagueSays and I am 100% here for all the Dante Pettis shares I can find! And thank you for the awesome feedback and conversations following last weeks Pros and Cons – it seems to have struck a chord with the audience. Once again please remember that the articles I bring to you will be based on the Pros and Cons of players the Fantasy Football Community had split ideas on prior to the season starting. It’s recap city over here!

So before we get started – Thank you, and enjoy!

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Prior to the season starting, I went to the masses and started listening to what the streets were saying. That’s right. Because the streets have nothing better to do these days than to talk about Fantasy Football, starts and sits, buy lows and sell highs. But by now, after nearly 25 weeks of my gibberish and rhetoric, you know what this article is and means to the audience. I literally mention it in my opening template every week. I take the Pros and Cons of players the Fantasy Football Community is harping on about and break down the good and the bad, the upside and the downside (you get the drift right?) of what certain players have to offer. I selected a handful of players from each position at the start of the year and am now following up with how their season finished and what their future looks like.

At Wide Receiver, I selected both Brandin Cooks and Sammy Watkins, who will be this week’s focal point one last time to follow up on how their seasons unfolded. How about we start with the basic numbers…

Statistical Overview

Highest Position Finish / Week: Brandon Cooks finished as the WR5 three times, however in Week 9 at New Orleans, Cooks pushed 20.40 points going 6-114-1. Sammy Watkins in Week 8 vs Denver smashed an 8-107-2 day to be the WR3 and looked to be worth every cent they paid him.

Lowest Finish / Week: Brandin Cooks’ Week 14 at Chicago with a 3-22 day ended as the WR59. Excluding his last regular season game against L.A. due to injury, Watkins was the WR72 @ New England recording 2-18.

Best Fantasy Performance / Week: Brandin Cooks in Week 10 at Seattle was electric. 12-10-100 in the air with a 9 yard Rushing Touchdown, for 21.90 points as the WR5. I dug the role Watkins had in Week 3 vs San Francisco, he had 5-55-1 in the air and had 20 yards Rushing in a very well rounded performance to finish as the WR15 – I know those numbers don’t pop like a couple of other games, but I thought that this game, in particular, looked like a solid game and what you would hope is a ‘floor’ type of a game going forward. He looked to do a lot of everything and he looked great doing it.

Preseason ADP (per fantasyfootballcalculator.com): Brandin Cooks was Drafted as the WR23 or 5.03 Overall. Sammy Watkins was Drafted as the WR33 or 7.09 Overall.

My Projections –

All projections are for the respective Players ceiling

Brandin Cooks:

Predicted Receiving – Targets: 109.7 / Catch Rate: 64.09% / Receptions: 70.31 / Yards Per Reception: 16.08 / Yards: 1131 / TDS: 8

Results Receiving –  Targets: 117 / Catch Rate: 68.4% / Receptions: 80 / Yards Per Reception: 15.05 / Yards: 1204 / TDS: 5 – Rushing Totals: 10-68 Yards-1 Touchdown.

Was I In The Ballpark? – I’m in the ballpark and probably on first base with Cooks’ preseason projection. Brandin Cooks, again, finished as a WR1 Overall this season. In typical Cooks fashion, however, as that was on the back of some massive performances. I overshot on his Touchdowns (one of which this year was also on the ground) but we saw a very even spread approach to how the Rams Receivers would get utilized. But for the most part, I feel like I was pretty much on the money with Cooks. In a team that scores so frequently per week, I thought he would be an upgrade at the Receiver position for the Rams this year, and he was. I was in the ballpark on this one.

PREDICTED FINISH; WR10 / END OF SEASON FINISH; WR12

Sammy Watkins:

Predicted Receiving: Targets: 70 / Catch Rate: 64.6% / Receptions: 45 / Yards Per Reception: 14.56 / Yards: 655.2 / TDS: 5

Results Receiving: Targets: 55 / Catch Rate: 72.7% / Receptions: 40 / Yards Per Reception: 12.98 / Yards: 519 / TDS: 3 – Rushing Totals 5-52 Yards.

Was I In The Ballpark? – Sort of. The tough reality of predicting a Sammy Watkins 16 game season is that he doesn’t often finish a full season – which was the case again. Based on how I was predicting, Watkins would have easily surpassed anything I put together – which would have been great for him and Fantasy Football! But, thems the brakes with Watkins who couldn’t quite get there yet again.

PREDICTED FINISH; WR37-48 / END OF SEASON FINISH; WR62

Again…

Brandin Cooks was overlooked and again Cooks has delivered a WR1 Overall Fantasy season as he finished the year as the WR12. We took him as the WR23 behind and amongst players with old and reliable track records such as Golden Tate, Demaryius Thomas, Larry Fitzgerald, and Doug Baldwin. On top of that, bigger boom players were preferred like Stefon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Chris Hogan, and Keenan Allen were given the nod, over Cooks in his third team in 3 years. 

Over the past 3 seasons, a knock on Cooks is that he is always a product of the team that he is in. It is ‘easy’ to succeed with Drew Brees as your Quarterback. It’s ‘easy’ to succeed with Tom Brady as your Quarterback. So it must be equally ‘easy’ for Cooks to be in a team with Offensive mastermind/play-caller Sean McVay steering the boat. He had Jared Goff starting the year on fire – as did Cooks – who fit in well with a 3-man Receiver group alongside Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. So potent was their attack, all three were in the Top 20 Receivers halfway through the season – Woods 9th, Cooks 13th, Kupp 16th Overall. Then Cooper Kupp got injured in Week 10 due to a torn ACL which slowed down the Rams offense significantly. On top of that, Woods from Week 5 had only 3 more Touchdowns for the season and Cooks similarily had no receiving Touchdowns from Week 10 through to Week 17 when he put two scores away against the ’49ers. So for a span of nearly 12 weeks, the core Wide Receivers who were available hardly hit paydirt.

Goff looked out of sorts and to make matters worse, Todd Gurley gets hurt in Detroit and all of a sudden that electric team looked kind of stagnant and on the run into the playoffs, the Rams didn’t quite look like themselves. Ultimately, when the run game slowed down, and when Cooper Kupp was no longer available; Brandin Cooks somewhat faded away.

However…

Cooks also had more 100-yard games in the second half of the season than he did in the first. He had more Touchdowns in the second half of the year (4) than he did in the first (2) and he averaged more Receptions in the second half of the year (5.62 per game) than he did in the first (4.37 per game). There could be an equal argument that even though it felt like a quiet back end to the season Cooks performed better as the year went on.

It needs to always be said with Cooks, depending on your resource; narrative absolutely matters. Every. Single. Time.

Again… 

Sammy Watkins was valued in and around the 7th round with WR3 value prior to the Fantasy season kicking off. Watkins was in the ‘dart throw’ range with Will Fuller, Cooper Kupp and Jamison Crowder. And, outside of the ‘non-game’ against the Rams due to an injury (shocker) really stopped playing from Week 9 onwards – although he did come back and play in the Playoffs and did uber well. As a result, he finished this season as the WR62. Now I know what you are thinking, he only played 10 (sic 9) regular season games, but so did Marvin Jones, Will Fuller, and Albert Wilson who all finished the season in the same area. But at the midway point of the year, Watkins was the WR25 Overall and was easily repaying your faith in him.

However…

That’s the always narrative right? The ‘if’s’, ‘and’s’ and/or ‘buts’ with Sammy Watkins. That’s what is continually harped on with Watkins, right? Yet it is constantly defended. Sammy Watkins gave us exactly what we didn’t want. Another injury, and another excuse for all his headstrong G-D Truthers out there that continually believe he is in the top echelon of Receivers in the league. And when I say at the ‘top’ (I personally) would think it’s fair and reasonable to say he’s in the Top 40 of all Receivers. It’s fair, when he plays he does great, but that needs to be balanced out with the all too consistent injuries he sustains – it’s time to proclaim him as being injury prone. But his fanatics will try to spew into your mind that he’s ‘easily’ a WR1 and there’s nothing, ever, you can say to reason with them – it’s the illogical rationale that is scary at times. To make matters worse, for the first 9 weeks he was doing what they had hoped for him – a season in a high flying team that he can contribute in greatly to make an impact with. And through the first 9 weeks, the tribe was kind of right. He was the WR25 with only 20 points keeping him out of the Top 12 Receivers which to be fair is a hell of an effort considering how loaded the Chiefs really are. Imagine the Chiefs having two Top 12 Wide Receivers along with Travis Kelce and Kareem Hunt (at the time)? That would have been crazy! But naturally, Watkins gets hurt. It’s what happens to him. Pretty much every year and as a result from Week 10 on he had 1 catch for 4 yards for the rest of the regular season. 

Now Kansas were fantastic, Mahomes was fantastic and Watkins in another preseason IS probably going to further integrate himself in this team which for Fantasy is fantastic. So before the offseason hype behind him gets going and everyone has their ‘take’ I want to prepare you for what’s at hand and what you’ll likely hear. There is no Kareem Hunt, and Damian Williams has replaced him and is not as ‘good’. Chris Conley will not be a factor, he is not as good as ‘Watkins’. Mahomes is due to ‘progressively regress’ but Watkins only had 3 Touchdowns in 2018 and will likely have more. All of this will be said. And it will be followed up by this conversation. Are you ready? Because once you read this you can never unsee it? Are you sure? Ok, here it is. Here is a conversation I will have with myself, against myself as a Sammy Watkins ‘truther’:

‘Sammy Watkins is easily a WR2 in 2019: if he had of played a full season would have been what you drafted him as, which was at least a WR3 with ‘upside’ and he can only improve. Without being hurt he would have had: 88 Targets, 64 Receptions (at an amazing 72.72% catch rate), 830.4 yards (at a fantastic 12.98 yards per reception) with 4 Touchdowns. That’s his floor!’

But that would have only really been good for 130.04 Fantasy points in 2018 and would have finished as the WR33 (or WR3 overall as an average return). That was only slightly behind Zay Jones with 137.2 points, Nelson Agholor with 133.4 points, and Robby Anderson with 131.4 points. I mean that’s not that great, those guys weren’t taken that high at all…

But @TheBLeagueSays, he wasn’t right in that game against the L.A. Rams as you mentioned which would bring his stats down, don’t dog him like that!

OK, I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll take that out and replace that with his fantastic effort against the Colts and Patriots in the playoffs this year. Is that fair?

Hey! And the game against Denver where he did nothing also!

I mean that makes no sense as to why I would do that…

Do it!

Fine. I don’t have it in me to argue with you again… If you were to take out the 2 games where he did absolutely nothing (due to injury or scheme) and replace them with games (that weren’t even in the Fantasy season) in the playoffs his numbers would look like this: 110 Targets, 78 Receptions (at a 70.9% catch rate), 1105.6 Yards (at a 14.17 yards per reception) with 9 TDS.

These numbers would have been good for 203.56 points in 2018 if he played a full season and removing the two bad games he had and added the 2 good games he had in the Playoffs and extrapolated it out over 16 games. He would have finished as the WR12 Overall, ahead of the guy mentioned above Brandin Cooks with 203.2 points, T.Y. Hilton with 201.0 Points, Tyler Lockett with 193.9 points and Odell Beckham Jr with 191.9 points.

THAT’S BETTER IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU GOT IT RIGHT!!!

And it’s totally irrational. But so will be the next 6 months of this continual regurgitated rhetoric. However…

DO YOU KNOW:

1. That prior to playing in Kansas, in four years Sammy Watkins averaged 763 yards per season, while never actually having a 700-yard season? He had either peaked with two seasons over 950-plus yards or two seasons with sub-600 yards seasons. In the two seasons where he has peaked, Watkins had 60 or more Receptions and in the seasons where he has ‘struggled’ Watkins had never had more than 40 Receptions. This year he was in the latter with less than 600 yards and no more than 40 Receptions.
2. He hasn’t had a season of 60 Receptions or 980-plus yards in 3 consecutive seasons.
3. Brandin Cooks had his most Receiving yards in a season, along with an increase in Yards Per Game. However, he had nearly 51% more Receptions at home, nearly 63% of his Yards were at home and had an 11.2% difference in Catch Rate Percentage at home too. On top of that, only 37.6% of his Targets came on the road. As well as 44% of his Targets coming on First Downs, and only 23.9% came on Third Downs. Robert Woods had 25.3% of his Targets come on Third Downs, Cooper Kupp had 25% of his Targets come in on Third Down too.
4. Cooks hasn’t had less than 1000 Yards in a season since 2014 (his Rookie season) and has not missed a game since then also.

THE PROS

Brandin Cooks:

He produced in a Patriots team that was stacked but unreliable at times, yet he still carved out a solid role with Tom Brady: When Cooks was in New England in 2017, their Offense looked a little different at the time. Malcolm Mitchell was a thing in 2016 until he wasn’t due to injuries in 2017, Rex Burkhead was a new toy and Rob Gronkowski was coming off a 2016 injury while Julian Edelman was to ultimately miss the 2017 season due to the same and similar reasons. Cooks walked in to essentially be ‘the guy’, while ultimately being used as ‘a guy we already know’. Fast forward to 2018 and moves are made to have Cooks being brought in to the Rams and Sean McVay is smitten, knowing he has time to integrate Cooks into their schemes and systems with plenty of time (contrary to what Watkins was afforded) prior to the season starting. Cooks, by his standards, did what he does and gave us a solid ‘average season’ in a three-headed Receiving group, boosted by a monster called Todd Gurley.

Ultimately Cooks is a great fit and played his part well, and gave you what he always gives you which is generally some big weeks and some quiet weeks. And in a team built like that, in the end, we should not be that surprised.

The ‘Swiss Army knife’ that he is can be used in bubble screens, sweeps with rushing ability. There is a multitude of ways to get him involved: He had a Rushing Touchdown which is something! He was used creatively just how we thought he could be. Yes, he is always good for a deep ball he will always have the speed to burn. But the sweeps and screens occurred and McVay brought the best out of him; which again was an ‘average’ year.

With Sammy Watkins leaving L.A, there’s a minimal Target share available, add to it what he takes from his new teammates also: We can’t (and shouldn’t) predict injuries, and with Cooper Kupp going down mid-year, but it should have helped his cause for a greater role, but his Target splits stayed the pretty much the same. From Week 11 onwards (post-Kupp injury in Week 10) Cooks had a 19.7% Target Share which was slightly down from the first 10 Weeks of the year when he had a 21.7% Target share. This could be a Jared Goff issue because we saw Goff’s Yards Per Game drop over the last 7 weeks of the year significantly. It could have been a Todd Gurley issue as he also succumbed to injury late in the year that should have boosted more work for Cooks, but that didn’t really evolve as McVay and the Rams ultimately pushed a heavier run game into the playoffs, using Free Agent pickup C.J. Anderson over the last few weeks of the year.

But any concern for Cooks and how he could finish would, in the end, has been squashed. It was his equal second best year for Targets and Receptions and his highest ever in Total Receiving Yards. The bigger disappointment, selfishly, was that his Receiving Touchdowns were the lowest it had been since his Rookie season – it was the lone Rushing Touchdown he had that brought his total tally back to up his ‘average’. But once again, in a team that stacked, expecting him to contribute more, maybe next year that expectation needs to be tempered.

Sammy Watkins:

He has had a healthy offseason and a chance to learn the playbook: Sammy Watkins was what EVERYONE hoped he could be and primarily that was healthy. He looked sharp, he looked free, he looked motivated to prove everyone who had doubted him wrong. In a team with Kareem Hunt, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill for the first time in a long time Watkins was virtually 1-on-1, and for a guy as smart and as talented as he is, that along with the creative calls that Coach Andy Reid has along with the enigma that we know Patrick Mahomes now to be; collectively it enabled Watkins to look like what he should be. That is…

…until he got hurt.

Again.

He doesn’t need to be the Alpha: And he wasn’t. He couldn’t be, not in that team. The narrative in the offseason was that Sammy Watkins will see more work. Watkins had an 18.4% Target share prior to his season derailing in Week 10. However, that stacked up fairly well compared to Hill (23.9%), Kelce (26.9%) and Hunt (9.9%) during for the first half of the year. However, in Fantasy points amongst other WR2’s, he was only behind guys like Stefon Diggs, Tyler Boyd (which to be fair, most did not see coming), Cooper Kupp and JuJu Smith-Schuster which is not bad company to be in midway through the year.

So amongst other teams’ secondary receiving options, it’s fair to say he stood up and held his own while returning plenty of interest on that 7th Round pick he cost you before the season started. That is…

…until he got hurt.

Again.

Paydirt! With all them Touchdowns baby!: Sammy Watkins in L.A. was uber-efficient, having a Touchdown for every 8.75 Targets, or every 4.87 Receptions. Prior to that in Buffalo, Watkins had a Touchdown for every 16.23 Targets or every 9 Receptions. Watkins for what it’s worth has a nose for scoring and getting in the End Zone. This year in Kansas, he had a Touchdown for every 18.33 Targets or every 13.33 Receptions. His range of outcomes would have (as I mentioned earlier) been anywhere between five to nine Touchdowns, which would have likely seen him stick to that back-end WR2-3 range the way he was traveling. That is…

…until he got hurt.

Again.

The Outcomes:

Brandin Cooks:

It’s going to feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but Cooks gave us what we should have expected due to what we already knew. He could be used in a variety of ways and would give you peaks and valleys. Overall, he fits into what the Rams were and are doing. And on top of this, Gurley, Woods, and Kupp are all contracted for a few more years yet. This collective group will be here for a while and will look to take a step further next year and win a Super Bowl. To do so, they will need Cooks to give his minimum ‘average’ at least, one more time.

Sammy Watkins:

It’s going to feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but just like Cooks, Sammy Watkins fit into his role seamlessly in Kansas in 2018. He was healthy and performed better than what you drafted him to be and that was likely, depending on how your Draft was going (and naturally depending on how big your league size is) anywhere from a late WR2 to a WR4. There were calls for him to be a ‘trade high’ candidate mid-season with his success halfway through because unfortunately, we know what follows next. Watkins gets injured. Again. Now, I love a redemption story and I love nothing more than to be proved wrong. And here’s hoping that with a good offseason and a solid preseason we can see a return to form for a talent like Watkins. It’d do my 2019 ‘Bold Prediction’ below some good too…

THE CONS

Brandin Cooks:

There are so many mouths to feed, Cooks needs to be efficient and more than just a ‘deep ball guy’: Cooks is more than a ‘deep ball’ Receiver, that much is true, but how he can improve going forward, for me, is something intangible like ‘presence’. For me, commanding a greater presence and being known as ‘the top guy ‘in L.A. as opposed to being a ‘role player and complimentary piece’ with Woods and Kupp are the conversations that Cooks needs to enter. A rebound in Touchdowns could help that stigma fairly quickly, so a hot start to the 2019 season could get that conversation started. At times it can feel like Cooks goes missing in games which is not great for a guy who has at times shown how versatile and explosive he can be.

Is he the answer to the hole that Sammy Watkins leaves?: Once again, it feels like Watkins last year for the Rams was always going to be villainized once Cooks landed in L.A. because, for the most part, their careers have mirrored each other. Watkins in L.A. had ridiculous efficiency and Touchdown efficiency which is something that you don’t often hear about Brandin Cooks. However, I’ve mentioned how Cooks has been used, I’ve mentioned his home and road splits – right now Cooks is what he is in that Rams Offense – whether that is enough for you when you are Drafting is another thing. Again, he is highly targeted on First Downs, can be used long or in diverse setups and schemes and as I’ve also mentioned he crushed a few of his career stats also. I think the way they were used by comparison was fairly different, but I think had Watkins had a full offseason it may have been a closer thought and result.

Is this the best landing spot for him?: It would be a great landing spot for me, and I was a played Soccer… Head Coach Sean McVay wanted his guy and Cooks put up really good stats and made back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. So… I would say yes? Yes. Yes, it was a good place for him to end up and Sean McVay got the guy he truly wanted. 

Sammy Watkins:

Can he cope by being the second or even third fiddle?: Cope? Yeah, I think he had a decent season and was on the verge of reminding everyone of how good he could be. Would I have preferred a few of the Targets-to-Touchdowns that went to Anthony Sherman, Chris Conley, De’Anthony Thomas, Demarcus Robinson, and Demetrius Harris go to Sammy Watkins? Absolutely, but I think that speaks to the creative genius that Andy Reid is and how well Patrick Mahomes executed over Watkins not being utilized. Does he go missing? Yes, just like Brandin Cooks, Watkins can at times go missing. And just like Cooks, they both play on high powered teams, and when someone gets hot, they get fed.

For his first year in this Chiefs team, I think once you step back and see what he was able to contribute I’d say it was a good year. That is…

…until he got hurt.

Again.

Sorry.

Last time I say that. I promise!

Can he keep up the Touchdown Rate?: No, he didn’t, but that was partly due to the insane amount of players that scored for the Chiefs last year, who had 12 different contributors in Receiving Touchdowns. At times it was hard to keep up with how the Chiefs were firing, but it sure was at times beautiful. For Watkins, that total amount of Touchdowns (3 Touchdowns) felt extremely low and it should feel that way. It was the second time in his career where he has had less than 6 Touchdowns in a season (he had 2 Touchdowns in 2016, where he only played 8 games for Buffalo). It feels like with a bit of momentum and player departures Watkins could see a larger role moving forward as his rapport with Mahomes further cements itself.

Speaking of Patrick Mahomes: We had one game in 2017 that Patrick Mahomes played in that gave us an indicator of what was to come. They traded away Alex Smith, and to be fair as reserved as our thoughts were on the back of a career year for Smith, it should have been the major indicator that they knew Mahomes could do that with his eyes closed. Mahomes ultimately went on to have one of the greatest Fantasy Football years since it’s conception and planted the first seed in his legacy as a Quarterback in the NFL by becoming the M.V.P in 2018 by having 50 Touchdowns and over 5000 Passing Yards.

QUE THE ESPN VOICE What if I told you that this was going to be a historic year for Patrick Mahomes after playing only one competitive game in his career?

Mahomes was – and is – special. And his follow up season should be too. And if you are a Sammy Watkins believer, that can only mean good things. That is…

Jokes. My bad…

The Outcomes:

Brandin Cooks AND Sammy Watkins:

It’s going to feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but Cooks and Watkins gave us what we should have expected due to what we already knew. And what we know is what we saw from both of them. Cooks was fine, he got his Targets and again he gave us his ‘average’ year in a team with a role that suits him.

And Watkins pretty much followed suit too. He gave us an electric season (like he can) and flashed brilliance in a team with a Coach and Quarterback that knew how to get the best out of him, and again he did that until he got injured.

But why did I combine this segment for both Cooks and Watkins and why have I ended with their ‘Pros’ in their ‘Cons’ section now? Simple, and I’ll answer it in the form of a question for you: If we are expecting their ‘average’ each season, is it fair to ask: have they both hit their respective ceilings? It will not be a shock to see Cooks do what he tends to do again. It will also not be a shock to see Watkins do what he tends to do again also. Both generally end up with the same results. So with both of them, if they cannot progress and further evolve their roles in their teams anymore, I feel like it is safe to say that the only both of them can go is back unless they keep giving their ‘averages’ once more which is probably likely.

That to me is a sign to now advise you to take a cautious approach to both players, with a probably ‘sit and wait’ stance to see how far they can both fall when you are Drafting this year. It is probable that they both will.

WAY TO EARLY 2019 BOLD PREDICTIONS

Brandin Cooks: Cooks will again be overlooked by the latest ‘flash in the pan’ or by someone whose situation may have improved (whether that be via trade in or out of their team, injuries, lack of Free Agent acquisitions – all of the above). And again, Cooks will do what he has done by the law of averages – by punching out another 1100-1300 yards with a likely 5-9 TDS and finish again as a back end WR1. We shouldn’t be shocked about the end results, just be shocked again by how far he slips on your draft board when your draft goes down.

Sammy Watkins: Watkins will again by hyped up, pumped up and overblown by sound bytes from Patrick Mahomes or Andy Reid and doubled down by a 15-second snippet of Watkins catching a pass in open field looking like the stud that he respectfully is. None of this is bold, so I will give you bold… Sammy Watkins actually finishes 16 games in 2019 and is a back end WR2 to a high-end WR3 and delivers a solid season, finally living up to his actual ADP. For once.

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SUMMARY

You would have noticed me say the words ‘again’, ‘average’ and ‘however’ quite frequently in this article and that’s kind of the narrative I am driving here. There is very much a ‘Ying’ and a ‘Yang’ approach to both Cooks and Watkins. Again, both are electric on the field and are difference makers. However, both get overlooked whether it be another injury concern in the case against Watkins, or whether it’s Cooks on the road playing second-fiddle to the copious amount of other resources the Rams could utilize.

Last year, Cooks, as I said, was drafted as a back end WR2 and finished again as a back-end WR1 (depending on your league size, I get it, in a 10 team league he was outside and in a 16 team league he was well in – you gotta work with me here). And the hype over players that finished the season well (like an Amari Cooper for example), and players who are due to bounce back (like a Doug Baldwin for example) will see that late WR10 to WR24 range fluctuate once Free Agency opens up and the Rookie Draft takes place. Cooper and Baldwin are interesting players that could potentially bump Cooks out of the WR1 range. Cooper stormed home in his new settings in Dallas and rightfully we should be excited about him moving forward. From Weeks 9-16, Cooper (although playing one more game in this timespan) had nearly 43 points more and Cooks did. Doug Baldwin, injuries and all, started to flash late in the year what he has been his whole career in a team that transitioned into a heavy run-first team. However, a healthy Doug Baldwin could show a resurgence to form again and see his overall Average Draft Position fly once more.

Next year, the same thing is probably going to happen, again – Cooks will finish as a back-end WR1 (as I have repeatedly said) despite not being selected as one. He walks like a duck, he quacks like a duck and he produces as a back-end WR1. That offense isn’t slowing down, and he was always involved as Jared Goff and Sean McVay are likely to evolve and progress upon last years phenomenal season. If Cooks falls to you – and he will – don’t hesitate in hitting the Draft button when you feel like the price is right.

Last year, again, Watkins, as I said, would end up a WR4 at best. And it has nothing to do with the quality of player that he is more so that he can’t get through a 16-week regular season. Death, taxes, and Watkins will get hurt. And that’s clearly the only problem. However, I have absolutely zero problems with Watkins being a WR2 – it’s absolutely (and has been) something he can and has been. And as His Quarterback Patrick Mahomes looks to solidify himself amongst the elite of the elite in back to back years, he is going to need Watkins available as often as possible. 

Next year, the same thing is probably going to happen (what is the @TheBLeagueSays a copy and paste job or what?!) again – Watkins is going to get pumped up. Be ready for that. And the hype will flow in for him in droves. Be ready for that too. And there is going to be a groundswell of support to take him well above his ADP evens out. Stay the course. Watkins is the type of guy next year you need to draw the proverbial line in the sand for. Find that line where you think (not what anyone else wants you to think) he should go and do not hate Drafting him if he falls in the range where you think he should be. Again, it sounds like a basic concept, and it is, but like Cooks – the wait then take approach could see you find tremendous value in both of them as the season starts. However, in the case for Watkins riding the whole year out and hoping he gets through it unscathed has the legitimate comparison of crapping in one hand and wishing in another and waiting to see what fills up first.

But, I guarantee, that as the traditional Fantasy Draft Season approaches (slowly right now, I know) these two guys, Cooks and Watkins will again be the centerpieces for conversations about who is overrated, who should be more appreciated, and who again is better or worse than what they’ve shown us.

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You can as always follow and find me at @TheBLeagueSays and offer any view or conversation about this. Let’s all get better together!

Once again, Thank you and Enjoy!

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