Brandin Cooks can thrive but it depends on Joe Brady and Josh Allen

Look, I know. I get it. It’s hard to get too excited about a wide receiver that a 2-9 team was all like “Yeah, get on outta here ya rascal” when he asked for his release. It’s maybe even harder to get there when the receiver is on the wrong side of 30 and where Buffalo will be his sixth unique stop.

Wow, I’m really doing a bad job selling wide receiver Brandin Cooks to y’all. Let’s look at some film and give the guy a chance.

Over the middle

Despite being “football old,” there’s no shortage of clips where Brandin Cooks looks comfortable mixing it up over the middle of the field and taking some shots. On this 3rd & 9 play it’s true that New Orleans was getting blown out, but it’s also true it was still the first half and no one should be conceding things.

To show Cooks, I zoomed in, which makes it less all-22 and more “some-22” but trust me when I say that Cooks was the best available route that I see and was well short of the sticks. There were also several defenders waiting to crash down. I won’t hold it against anyone who wants offensive coordinator Joe Brady gone, and I’m not saying this next sentence is enough to keep anyone on its own merit. It could be worse, though.

In motion

Cooks came into the league with speedster credentials, recording a 4.33 time in the 40-yard dash at the 2014 NFL Scouting Combine. I will be candid and say that what I saw doesn’t lend itself to lead me to believe he still has elite speed, but there is enough to be used in concert with a word that might come back a time or two in this article: “timing.”

Timing

See? I told you it’d come back up. In the play above, the timing is less obvious with such a large cushion, but Cooks settled in time to make an easy catch and turn to gain RAC. With that play it’s more about Cooks’ timing as his movements dictate the “when” of the throw to some degree.

On this play, it’s about both players timing up well to fit the ball into a narrow window. When synced up, even little spaces can become catches.

Adjustment

I selected this play to illustrate yet another route concept Cooks was trusted with. The tweaks at the top of the route help make the catch happen and, again, Cooks continued to show willingness to work when about to take a hit.

Change of direction

I wanted a play to show how well Cooks can cut and change direction, as that’s the potential cheat code for advanced routes. I see adequate capability but again, he’s 32-years old. The ability to reach and pluck the ball out of the air I will also talk about and say I really like to see.

The Final Straw

The level of enthusiasm you feel should be directly proportional to the level of confidence you have in Joe Brady and quarterback Josh Allen. Cooks is still a capable receiver whose primary strengths seems to be good hands, veteran ability to read the field and find spots to be “open,” and comfort working wherever you need him on the field. For my two cents that adds up to a timing-based receiver where chemistry will rule the day.

That means Joe Brady has to design plays with that in mind, and Josh Allen needs to build rapport quickly in order to deliver the ball on time. For Allen, it’s not a capability thing to be perfectly clear. We’ve seen him operate quick hitters based on timing plenty of times.