Is Chris Cooley a Premier NFL TE? Why Most Standards would Suggest He Isn’t

Cooley vs Patriots
For five years to start his career, Captain Chaos was one of the five best players on either side of the ball for the Washington Redskins, and worked his way (deservingly so) into the pro bowl for the first time in 2007.  A couple years back, I believe this was before the 2009 season, but it may have been before 2010, I was asked (hypothetically) if it would be wise to accept an offer of a first and a third round pick for Chris Cooley.  The answer to these type of questions is almost always yes.  A first and third round pick for Cooley?  Who wouldn’t take that deal?!

Well, I for one (at the time), said I would turn it down, much like the Cincinnati Bengals once turned down Vinny Cerrato’s advances in the direction of Chad Ochocinco.  I had good reasoning to do so.  Cooley was very young, just 26 or 27 at the time (he turns 29 next month).  And the way the game was trending — perhaps you’ve seen this recently with the New England Patriots — offenses are only proving as good as the tight ends they throw to.  So why would the Redskins give up Cooley in a trade if in doing so, they create such a huge void that immediately the draft picks acquired have to be re-invested in the tight end position, and the timetable to compete offensively slow down?  It wouldn’t make much sense to take the draft pick value on the front end, and then waste it on the back end.  That was my thinking at the time.

Problem is, here we are two years later, and after three years of the Cooley + Fred Davis experiment, the Redskins are no more competitive offensively than they were at the end of the 2008 season.  Despite this, the correlation between the ability of a stable of tight ends and the ability to throw the football all over the field has never been greater.  So where have the Redskins missed the boat?  Cooley and Davis were (along with Jason Witten and Martellus Bennett) the first of the NFL’s highly rated TE duos.  Cooley was a pro bowler when Davis was drafted and Davis has developed into a sub-elite receiving threat from the TE position.  You could also make the argument that Davis has become the better blocker.  And yet, he can’t seem to get enough playing time.  So where is the disconnect here?  Why is the TE position so relatively unproductive for the Washington Redskins despite everything that they’ve invested in it?

The truth is that the Redskins are being less selective in how they’ve used Chris Cooley.  Since the decline of Chris Samuels began in 2008, Cooley has been used more in the pass protection scheme.  Over the same time period, Cooley has been targeted more times by passes than at any point in his career.  This is not Cooley’s fault; its a usage problem created by a pair of coaching staffs lacking in innovation.  Cooley is such a focal point of the offense these days that everything the team does runs through him (and Santana Moss as well, in 2010).  When does Fred Davis get to play?  When Cooley is hurt or tired I suppose.  Why not use them both together?  Because: how in the world will Mike Sellers get his snaps then?!

Even when the Redskins do put their tight ends on the field at the same time, they rarely used them to run layered routes.  They usually just run a bootleg to one side or the other, or throw in a gimmick play to get Davis the ball wide open.  Needless to say, at a point in his career where Cooley’s effectiveness should be increasing, it is actually trending downward.  Cooley has not been a premier player in this league since about 2007-2008, his fourth and fifth years in the NFL.  He’s had to deal with an ankle injury since then, and working with Donovan McNabb did not help his career except by way of forced, desperation passes.  So taken all into account, Cooley is not so much at fault for his decline.  But what has been proven conclusively is that the Redskins throw a number of balls to Cooley that only the most premier of targets should ever see, and the truth is that if Cooley was such a premier target, he should never, ever be left in to block on a passing play in deference to either Fred Davis or Mike Sellers.

I think it would be in the Redskins best interest to shake up the depth chart and let Davis start some games over Cooley.  Sellers should not be getting offensive snaps that aren’t on the goal line.  Davis is a far more versatile receiver who has similar ability after the catch to Cooley.  He doesn’t have near the quality of hands to make difficult catches that Cooley does, but Cooley’s hands have actually been a limiting factor on his ability to contribute to the Redskins offense in 2010.  Plus, once you start to establish that the offense is going to throw the ball vertically to it’s tight end, then the space that Cooley has to make plays in the intermediate level on the option routes he’s so good at become much more available, and you reap some of that run after catch yardage.

To be clear, even as a non-premier player, Chris Cooley is so valuable on third down plays and in open space that he has to be in the game on all third downs, fourth downs, and all other critical plays.  I just don’t see why the Redskins have an unwritten rule that Cooley can never come off the field on first or second down either.  Even though the Redskins treat Cooley like a premier NFL interior player, I don’t believe you could build an offense around Cooley any easier than around the following targets:

  1. Antonio Gates
  2. Rob Gronkowski
  3. Jason Witten
  4. Marcedes Lewis
  5. Jermichael Finley
  6. Tony Gonzalez
  7. Vernon Davis
  8. Kellen Winslow
  9. Zach Miller
  10. Tony Moeaki; amongst others 

And seemingly, the Redskins need to treat Cooley, franchise player and all, like a player who is well respected instead of a offensive focal point that drives the entire offense.  Because the results are clear: no one, at any position, has been driving the Redskins offense over the past two plus seasons.  Regardless, if some team was foolish enough to come in with an offer of a first and third round pick for Chris Cooley, I’d have to pull the trigger and take my chances in the draft.

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