It has been a busy offseason for the Saints.
Free agency began with a bang when New Orleans cut short by a thumb-injury that robbed him of his ability to finished out the year, Brandin Cooks nudged out Kenny Stills and was actually the most efficient Saints wide receiver last season on a fantasy points per route run basis.
Here are the 2014 Saints top-four pass-catchers relative to fantasy points per target and fantasy points per route run data. There are additional columns for routes run per game (RR/Gm) and average depth of target (aDOT), as well. The data is sorted by fantasy points per route run (FPs/RR) and all scoring is PPR.
| Player | RR/Gm | aDOT | FPs/Tgt | FPs/RR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graham | 32.7 | 8.8 | 1.92 | 0.45 |
| Cooks | 35.3 | 8.5 | 2.14 | 0.39 |
| Stills | 30.6 | 12.9 | 2.17 | 0.38 |
| Colston | 38.7 | 11.8 | 1.86 | 0.31 |
It's worth mentioning that every Saints wide receiver except Marques Colston was above the league average in fantasy points per route run (0.36), and Jimmy Graham was above the tight end league average of 0.33.
Interestingly, Cooks' 2.14 fantasy points per target actually tied for the 11th-best mark of 90 total qualified wide receivers. If that figure stands, it should be a nice boon for his overall prospects in a larger role. If you wanted to build a better situation for a player like Cooks to excel in, you would likely be incredibly hard-pressed.
The Path Ahead
Just like any pick in fantasy football, players come with inherent risk. Cooks is coming back from thumb surgery, which leaves a small pause for concern. Also, and more importantly, the Saints may be completely overhauling the way they do business on offense.
Over the past three seasons, the Saints have become more run-heavy. They have decreased their pass-to-run ratio from 1.88 in 2012 to 1.77 and down to 1.70 this past season. And, as alluded to in the opening, every indication so far is the Saints are likely to continue this trend. Barring an unprecedented change, New Orleans will likely build off of their 34.9 rush percentage in 2014. (Keep in mind that figure was still in the bottom six in the league, so head coach Sean Payton was still predominantly pass-heavy.)
While a lot of moving parts are still yet to fall in place for New Orleans, one thing is for sure: Brandin Cooks has gained a great deal of real and fantasy football value this offseason.