Euphoria

I'll say it again... thank goodness for fantasy football.

WillSaints81

This is Cooks' third year, he should already have known a lot. He did get hurt in 2014 but he was only hurt in the second half that season and still learned things on the bench. He makes big deep plays at times but it's time for him to really step up. We should really get away from the TE offense, it does not work for us. We should employ Cooks, Thomas, Snead more than the rest because volume equals productions.

ODB and Evans are afraid of no corner. I don't know if Cooks is a true number one.

Also, we're not using Thomas as advertized. He was supposed to be our slot receiver. Instead he's used as a wideout. They are running a different offense that Brees is not used to operating. Brees is not throwing over the middle as much which has been his strength. He's not known for his left/right throws.

Utah_Saint

They are using Cooks, Thomas and Snead more than the TEs.
All three of them individually have more targets than Fleener and Hill.

Cooks, Thomas, Snead - 212 targets
Fleener and Hill - 68 targets

That's the lowest percentage of TE targets the Saints have had since 2008.

And I don't think Cooks is afraid of any particular corners either. He doesn't have as many targets as OBJ or Evans but he does have a higher catch percentage.

Cooks - 68.0%
OBJ - 60.2%
Evans - 53.7%

And since Cooks has a higher yards per reception, it's easy to extrapolate out the numbers and conclude that if he had the same number of targets as the other two, he'd have more yards than either.

I don't think it's a matter of Cooks not being a true #1, I think it has much more to do with the fact that Brees has better second and third choice options than Winston or Manning have. Thomas and Snead have been much better this season than Sterling Shepard and Victor Cruz for the Giants and Adam Humphries and Cameron Brate for the Bucs. I don't know if you're a believer in PFFs grading system but by their grading, the Saints are the only team this season to have 3 receivers grade out at over 80.

I'm not sure about the "different offense" but Brees is completing 71.0% of his passes this year. A 71 percent completion rate for a season has only been done once in the history of the NFL. (Brees 71.2% 2011). So I'd say he's doing pretty well at his "left/right" throws.