Everyone knows Riley Cooper’s past off-the-field issues and what occurred as a result. For the purposes of this article, lets stay on the field though.
With that being said, Cooper still hasn’t had the greatest beginning to his career.
Cooper was drafted during the Andy Reid era but was a holdover to the Chip Kelly regime and that switch seemed to be exactly what he needed. After enjoying a breakout season in Kelly’s first season as head coach, he had what was perceived as, a “bad” season to follow. The reasons for his dramatic drop in production range from the team missing Desean Jackson running down the sideline (cut that offseason) to Jordan Matthews being rumored to run better routes and taking more snaps. Cooper even volunteered a reason when he stated that he was losing snaps to Jeremy Maclin because Maclin was not rotating in and out of games like the rest of the wide receivers. Either way, the fact is that Cooper was simply not as effective on the field as he was in his first season in the Kelly’s system.
But was he really THAT bad?
Now that Maclin is signed long term in Kansas City, questions about why the Eagles decided to keep Cooper and not Maclin or, current Redskin, Jackson are spread far and wide. Kelly has defended Cooper’s production before by continuously saying that he has done everything the offense has asked him to do. One infamous reason that ESPN sports personality, Stephen A. Smith, believes to be the reason why Cooper was retained by the team is his ability to block in the run game, which is more of a shot at Cooper’s ability to perform his main duties as a receiver than a compliment to his blocking ability. However, taking a look at the numbers tell a different story.
In Cooper’s first year as a starter, he was targeted 84 times and recorded 47 receptions. In his second year as a starter, Cooper was targeted 95 times and recorded 55 receptions. That gives Cooper a catch-target success rate of about 56-percent and 58-percent, respectively. So Cooper’s catch rate was virtually unchanged between both seasons. The same cannot be said for his yardage totals and yards per reception though.
Cooper recorded 835 yards on only 47 catches in his first season a starter next to Jackson and averaged an impressive 17.8 yards per catch. Those figures dropped in his second season, notably without Desean Jackson, to 55 catches for 577 yards, which yielded an average of about 10.5 yards per catch.
Something worth noticing is the play of the quarterback also being a factor here as Nick Foles enjoyed an unprecedented year in Cooper’s first season as a starter and a very average season in Cooper’s second year, which Mark Sanchez also played significant snaps in. Lesean McCoy also ran for 1600 yards in Cooper’s first year and 1300 in his second year. Lesean McCoy’s drop in production is important as well, as he recorded 1607 yards on 314 carries in the 2013-2014 season but recorded only 1319 yards on 312 carries in the 2014-2015 season.
Cooper went from an up-and-coming play-maker and starter two years ago to someone that now looks to be the 3rd or 4th receiver on the roster for this season.
If you are wondering what happened like the rest of the city of Philadelphia, here are a few reasons…
The loss of Jackson was a huge hit for Riley. Even with Maclin posting nearly identical numbers to Jackson, the way that defenses decided to play Maclin was completely different from Jackson. Desean Jackson’s speed down the sideline is a weapon that doesn’t even require a ton of targets and receptions to take advantage of. Coordinators are so terrified of allowing the dreaded ‘X’ play, which Jackson specializes in, that they give safety help over the top of him regardless of whether they believe he may get the ball or not. With that kind of attention being paid to the ‘Z’ receiver, Cooper was able to do a good amount of damage down the field in one-on-one man coverage using his size, as a true possession receiver, to his advantage. In short, Maclin didn’t run ‘go’ and ‘fly’ routes all year long so teams were able to focus on containing Cooper in the deep parts of the field.
Another reason Cooper experienced a decrease in production is because he no longer had the element of surprise going up against other teams. Defensive backs and defensive coordinators around the league took notice of Cooper’s ability as a possession receiver and used the game tape to plan accordingly. The times where Cooper was running one-on-one down the sideline and in the end zone were few and far in-between.
The most important reason, however, is the distance of the passes thrown to Cooper. The amount of deep passes completed to Cooper also decreased during his second season as a starter. This is evident by the fact that Cooper only broke 50 receiving yards four times during this past season and, in one of those games, he caught a 50 yard pass while never topping 100 yards receiving in any game all season long. In comparison to his first year starting, Riley broke the 50 yard barrier six times and even threw up a trio of 100 yard games. In 2013-2014, 20 of Cooper’s 47 catches traveled threw the air 10 yards or less. In 2014-2015, 37 of his 53 catches were thrown 10 yards or less. That is a 27-percent decrease in completed passes thrown over ten yards. This is the reason for Cooper’s decrease in yardage totals.
In conclusion, it was easy to see why the Eagles wanted to keep Cooper and rewarded him with a nice sized contract but he has not lived up to the guaranteed dollars being dished his way just yet. There is also another big reason for concern though. Cooper may be incapable of duplicating his explosive form because of the radical changes the receiving corps has gone threw under Kelly. Maclin, Jackson, and Jason Avant have all been replaced (admirably, I might add) by Matthews, Nelson Agholor, Darren Sproles, and Josh Huff. The latter definitely have the potential to be a good receiving core, and possibly even great in this scheme, but the former were a trio of proven veterans capable of presenting issues for defensive coordinators, with a resume to boot.
Cooper’s production can be attributed partially to the drop in receiving talent on the roster, but not his own ability.
When a team has to account for a specific player on the outside, like a Maclin or a Jackson, players like Cooper benefit from the roll of the coverage. In this case, however, Maclin was defended much differently than Jackson because of Maclin’s ability as a route runner in underneath routes as well as ‘fly’ patterns (it also helps to mention that Maclin does not possess the terrifyingly explosive speed that Jackson has, although Maclin is fast in his own right). Many of the throws that Cooper enjoyed between 10 and 20 yards down the field in 2013-2014 were thrown to Maclin the following season to utilize his talents as a complete receiver. Jackson is the league’s most explosive receiver down the field but he was not considered to be a complete receiver.
McCoy’s production is also a factor here. The offensive line’s early season woes are usually used to excuse McCoy’s 300 yard loss of rushing production but that same reason can be used to explain why Cooper had a loss of production. Defenses were much more successful in stopping the run this past season which resulted in the team attempting 100 more passes than the previous season. This would allow teams to play more coverage down the field as a result of the loss of rushing dominance.
So the next time someone asks when Cooper is going to be cut or why he had such an “off” year, do them a favor and drop some knowledge for them because numbers tell a great story but only when you use the ones on the inside of the book too.
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