ROUND 2 PICK 64 - WR/KR RANDALL COBB (KENTUCKY)

quote:

Originally posted by Hungry5:

2011 will be another tough year for making final cut-down decisions.

I think that is why MM kept a guy like Havner around. He could play 3rd TE and 7th LB on gameday

Cobb's QB background may allow GB to combine 5th WR and 3rd QB into one player on Sunday

4 TE/2 FB is better than 3 TE /3 FB in a passing offense

Korey Hall is now a former Packer IMO and GB will re-sign Kuhn and keep Johnson

Swain is likely a former Packer too

I think both Hall and Johnson could be gone if Williams can play significant snaps @ FB.

If Cobb outplays Swain in the pre-season/TC, Swain's gone. If Swain was a playmaker, I could see them trying to keep all of them. But there doesn't seem to be any scenario I can imagine where they would keep them all. Not with all the other spots they'll need to keep depth for. Swain just wouldn't fit.

quote:

Originally posted by El-Ka-Bong:
nothing against Donald, but Jones is the better receiver right now. Gets open more and more of a YAC threat. Donald has a place on this team, but mostly as a possession receiver (and I know, he may have had the most exciting play of the regular season this year).

Rodgers kept going to Jones, so I'm guessing he wants him around as well.

I'm disagree, at least somewhat, EKB. I think, at worst, they are a 'wash'. It's a little hard to compare them, though, because I don't see them having the same role. IOW, I don't see JJ being the slot receiver nor DD consistently playing on the outside.
I do think Jones has a speed advantage, and is more of a downfield threat, but nobody can catch the quick slant and take off like DD. No question DD is stronger and can shed tackles better, in my mind, as well.
At the end of last season, Jones was indeed the better player of the 2, but I think it only fair to consider Driver's injury situation.
In the long run, I think there is more to gain from keeping Driver rather than Jones while Cobb develops, and Jennings and Nelson take an increased role in the passing attack.

While WRs are usually better by year 3, it doesn't always take them that long to have an impact. Jennings had a decent role in the offense as a rookie and Cobb looks pretty polished as far as college players go. I expect him to make a few highlight reels in 2011.

It often takes several years to develop a WR based on the complexity of the WCO

GB makes it even harder as they require their WRs to know all 3 positions, X,Y,Z

It gives MM the multiplicity he craves as a play caller. They will find a way to use Cobb in 2011, but it will take some time to get him up to full speed and he is already losing time to the lockout. Good news is that his draft bio suggests he is smarter than the average bear...

He is looking to track down AR at the Derby this weekend.

Nice article here (link) by Matt Bowen of the National Football Post on the many options Cobb could provide the Packers.

I have a love/hate relationship with such articles.

Love to read them and get all excited about the 2011 season. Hate that it's months away (at least).

Thanks for posting the link!

the best part about that video clip at the bottom...he's gassed after running for the td, and then he has to hold for the extra point. beautiful.

In every highlight video Ive seen of him, on receptions, he always makes the first guy miss. Good YAC.

Logan Mankins is jealous.

I didn't realize this kid has decent QB skills. I like Bowen's suggestion of using him in the tank formation.

IIRC, he played QB in HS and as a Frosh at Kentucky. He runs like a RB hitting the hole like JJSD hitting Pippa's pooper.

Cobb wants the ball, but knows how to ask
packers.com
by Mike Spofford on Saturday, May 7th, 2011

quote:

“We’d be in there at 10 o’clock at night as a staff and Randall would pop in and listen to us game plan,” said Tee Martin, passing game coordinator and receivers coach at Kentucky this past year. “He’d be a part of it. He was always around.”

snip

The Packers picked Cobb to see what he can do in the return game, too. Cobb’s return stats weren’t all that dynamic last year, but Martin – who also coached the punt-return team – said there wasn’t much Cobb could do about it.

After he averaged 12.8 yards per punt return in 2009 and then ran one back 50 yards for a score in the second game of 2010, teams went to rugby-style punts and other gimmicks to keep him from getting the ball. His punt-return average dipped to 7.8. He also shared kick-return duties with a teammate at times.

snip

“I know Chad Clifton and Scott Wells, they’re good buddies of mine, and he will fit right in with those guys,” Martin said of his fellow Tennessee alums. “He’s not going to be a rookie that bucks the system and the veterans have to mold him and get him on the right page. He’s going to come in the room and it’s going to feel like he’s been there for four years.”continue

I am officially a Randall Cobb fan.

Who we could have taken: OLBs Moch, Houston, Wilson; DE McClain.

Analysis: McClain doesn't read like anything special. I would have loved one of these OLBs. Again, based on Packers preference for physicality, I think Moch would have been third on this list. I think Houston or Wilson would have looked great in green and gold. Houston should have gone a round higher and would have if not for the failed marajuana test. Admittedly, Packers would probably not have gotten both a quality WR and return specialist later in the draft. The next closest thing to Cobb was WR/RS Jernigan, who the Giants took in the middle of the 3rd, and he's shorter and not as good as Cobb. But even Jerrigan was gone by the time our 3rd round pick came up, and there was no one to take who could fill both roles. We have badly needed a quality RS for years. And between Driver being 36 and Jones likely leaving in free agency, arguably needed a quality WR prospect more than an OLB. Maybe Thompson was reminded of Wolf's regret for having not gotten Favre more weapons, and wants to ensure Rodgers always has multiple quality WRs/TEs to throw to. Seeing Wilson and especially Houston rushing the passer opposite Matthews would have been awesome. That said, I give Cobb the slight edge. I do expect Jones to sign elsewhere, and Driver's got maybe one good year left. We needed a WR as badly as an OLB, maybe more. He should become a great slot receiver in the mold of a Wes Welker. More importantly, Cobb should fill a huge-standing hole as both a kickoff and punt returner, and maybe even be a threat out of the backfield on third downs, or when holding for kicks. Looking at next round, we could've gotten a decent WR prospect, but not a returner.

McGinn: "After taking Cobb at 64, the Packers then saw two pass-rushing outside linebackers, Nevada’s Dontay Moch and Georgia’s Justin Houston, go off in the first six selections of the third round. Another athletic linebacker with some rush potential, Illinois’ Martez Wilson, went 72 to New Orleans. That effectively wiped out the crop of capable pass rushers." http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/120932024.html

Conclusion: I think Cobb was the right choice.

i haven't beem this excited about a 2nd round draft choice since Leroy Butler...and I think that pick will turn out well. Jennings was another good one, but I didnt know much about him.

I think Cobb, both talent-wise and attitude-wise, will turn out to be one of the BEST picks in this draft. Cant wait to see him play for the Pack.

Lots of projections had him going at the top of the second and TT got great value, plus he fills the huge hole that existed in the return game. In a few years people will look back on this pick as a home run.

In the comments of Bowen's article:

Johnny Z
May 04, 2011
11:28 AM

"Some of Wes Welker's most devastating slot routes are simple outs. He starts outside the numbers in 2WR sets, and when he's in the slot, they often pop him outside as quickly as it can be done.

Cobb is much faster than Welker. If he can be as adept at getting wide open, he will be great fun to watch.

On the return game, that will play out. It's hard to return punts in GB. On most metrics, Antonio Chatman was in the upper 1/3rd of all NFL returners, including fair catches, and the Green Bay media did nothing but attack attack attack.

McCarthy downplayed the Wildcat. It will be interesting to see if they develop a set of plays of that type. I will be surprised if they do."

Juan Zamboni with an Antonio Chatman reference.

Wow...Antonio Chatman's horse still not dead. He was crap crap and more crap.

That's fantastic. Miss that little guy

am I to understand the Antonio Chatman has a horse in the Kentucky Derby named "Crap, crap and more crap?"

Write up by Pro Football Focus
By Ben Stockwell

quote:

What an absolute embarrassment of riches the Green Bay Packers have in their receiving corps, such was their strength in depth last season that second round pick Cobb saw less than 300 snaps during the regular season. He announced his arrival on the scene with two touchdowns on his NFL debut, on most other teams around the league that would have seen him thrust into the limelight, but the Packers had sufficient strength in depth to keep him warming the bench.

Cobb provided further glimpses of his talent throughout the regular season, but surely this year the Packers cannot continue to keep him out of the offense? As a versatile weapon at the University of Kentucky he was a leader for the offense. In Green Bay he will be a fourth or fifth option. To have a player of this devastating talent that deep in your arsenal has got to be close to cheating.

Cobb registered a touchdown in his first preseason game this year and this should be a sign of more to come as he pushes James Jones and Donald Driver for more playing time in the Packers’ three- and four-wide sets. You won’t see too many defenses able to match-up with the WR depth Cobb gives Green Bay.

Unbelievably excited to see this guy play with a full off season with AR under his belt.

I really do think by the end of the year, Cobb will be one of the "big 4" assuming health. The "big 4" would be Jennings, Nelson, Finley, and Cobb. They all have slightly different talents, but are threats in their own right.

Donald Driver and James Jones still have the ability to help as well, I just think they might be a level below those 4 by the end of the year.

Wilde notes that Randall Cobb turns 25 today.

 

Talented, yes, but from the start such a mature, responsible player. I really hope he can be a PFL.

Special from the start indeed. 

Only 25 years old. Plays like a 10 year vet. Humble as they get. So glad he decided to take a little less money to stay in Green Bay. 

Cobb got tackled - in the end zone by Bush - his own player - which is probably the reason Bush wasn't re-signed this off season.  TT has a long memory. 

I'd forgotten how Kuhn basically held Cobbie up so he could complete the barrel roll.

No surprise. Jordy out in front clearing a lane. 

Typical Kuhn play. He's just a smart football player.

HIt it big with Cobb and got a little bit out of Davon House, but overall not a good draft at all.

Some see half empty. Some see half full. I see more room for Vodka. 

 

I'll close with an old Chinese proverb:

 

"Only borrow money from pessimists. They immediately assume you will never pay it back". 

The placement of some of those passes... Why the f would you even consider leaving?

The last play Gerg made for the Packers was providing Exhibit A on how short term cash advantages ≠ longer term success and satisfaction.

Cobb and Jordy, that was a lot of talent on special teams. 

Thanks. I really was enjoying the celebration of Cobb way too much. Thank you for knocking back some of that joy.