Oakland Raiders: Jared Cook Signing Seems Unnecessary And Redundant

The Oakland Raiders have signed another offensive free agent – this time, a pass catching tight end. Though it adds another weapon to the arsenal, it seems like a superfluous and redundant signing.

Maybe Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie was getting tired of hearing people bemoaning the fact that he hadn’t signed anybody during the free agency period. Maybe he finally felt the pressure to do – something. Anything. And so, he did do something – which was to go out and sign tight end Jared Cook.

After Green Bay gave him a little shove out the door by signing Martellus Bennett, Cook drew some interest around the league. His dance card, while not full, certainly wasn’t empty. But after taking a few meetings, he settled on Oakland – thanks in large part, the presence of quarterback Derek Carr and a dynamic offense.

While there are many in the Raider Nation celebrating the signing, at first blush, adding Cook to this offense seems redundant and unnecessary.

Sure, giving Carr another toy to play with – especially down in the red zone – can never be a bad thing. There is little doubt that Cook is going to see some targets when they’re down in scoring position. He’s a big, strong, physical presence who – at 6’4”, 235 lbs. – is going to be able to go up and get some balls in the back of the endzone.

The problem with that though, is that the Raiders already have that guy – Clive Walford.

It wasn’t all that long ago when fans celebrated the selection of Walford in the third round out of Miami. And like Cook, Walford stands 6’4”, is 254 lbs. – and has the ability to go up and challenge for balls as well.

Physically, there isn’t much sunlight between the two players. And statistically speaking, there isn’t much either. Consider the following numbers each player posted last season:

Cook: 30 rec. for 377 yards and a touchdown

Walford: 33 rec. for 359 yards and three touchdowns

Extend those stats out two seasons – Walford’s only two in the league – and see what you get:

Cook: 69 rec. 858 yards and one touchdown

Walford: 61 rec. 688 yards and six touchdowns

Last season, Walford and Cook were virtually, the same player. Over the last two seasons, Cook has amassed more yards, but Walford has scored quite a bit more. But still, they are very similar in terms of production.

There are however, a few notable differences between the two:

Cook is just about to turn 30. Walford is 25. Cook had a reception percentage of 58.8 percent. Walford’s was 63.5 percent. Cook is costing the Raiders a guaranteed $5 million this season and a reported $12.2 million over the life of his two year contract – which, presumably includes a number of incentives. Walford is costing the Raiders under a million.

It seems an important point to reiterate – Walford is younger, had a higher reception percentage last season, and hauled in more touchdowns than Cook. And perhaps most importantly, is a lot more cost effective than Cook.

Just looking at all of those raw numbers, it’s difficult to see how Cook is an immediate upgrade at the tight end position – a position that didn’t seem to need massive overhauling going into the offseason.

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The signing of Cook would seem to indicate that Walford has fallen out of favor in Oakland. But the question would then have to be – why?

The problem from the perspective of many is that Walford has been underutilized in Oakland’s offense to this point – criminally underutilized. And the blame for that should fall squarely on former OC Bill Musgrave.

Though Musgrave helped this offense absolutely excel, he has never been one who used his tight ends very often. Underscoring that point is the fact that Walford had just 52 targets for the whole season. For a tight end who’s shown that he can make some tremendous plays, 52 is an incredibly meager amount of targets.

And it’s hard to have eye-popping production when you’re used so infrequently. Walford is never going to have the sort of production that a Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski, or Greg Olsen have when he’s only seeing 52 targets a season.

The problem with Walford hasn’t been production. It’s been when and how often he’s been utilized in the passing game. And we’re looking at the very real possibility that the few looks Walford has gotten are going to get cut into even further.

With Lee Smith back to handle the primary blocking duties, we’re going to see Cook featured more in the passing game. And at some point, the team is going to want to see what they have in Gabe Holmes – whom they tendered as an ERFA.

Which makes you wonder – where is Walford going to fit into the passing offense?

At 25 years old, we’re just barely scratching the surface of Walford could do. He’s got so much potential that currently remains untapped – but given some of his explosive and jaw-dropping plays, it’s not hard to believe that he could be something special.

And at just about 30 now, Cook has very likely already hit his ceiling. Which makes it even harder to see how adding Cook to the roster is an upgrade at the position.

The hope is that new OC Todd Downing can integrate the tight ends into the passing game in ways that Musgrave never seemed able – or willing – to do. If he can find ways to use Cook and Walford on the field at the same time, they could be a ferocious 1-2 punch.

Cook will be productive in this offense. How productive remains to be seen. But for many, it’s difficult to see how or why signing him was necessary. Even more so, when you look at the physical attributes and statistical numbers of both Cook and Walford side-by-side.

While Carr having another weapon in his arsenal is a good thing – after all, you can’t have too many weapons, now can you? – it’s hard not to look at the Cook signing as not necessarily a bad thing, just unnecessary and redundant when they have a raw talent like Clive Walford in the fold.