Monday, February 25, 2013
What's cooking with Jared?
By Tim Kavanagh
One fact that's remained clear over the course of the past several weeks is that the Tennessee Titans want to retain the services of TE Jared Cook. Both the coaching staff and the front office agree that it's better for the team to try and maintain his services than let him leave and try and find someone else for the position. What's unclear -- as of late, especially -- is what exactly that position is.
According to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, Cook -- and his agent -- sees himself more as a wide receiver than a tight end. The snap count numbers support his argument, to a degree. Wyatt (via Pro Football Focus) notes that of Cook's 485 snaps in 2012, he lined up in the slot 56 percent of the time, and out wide on a number of other occasions. This would support the idea that he is not an inline player. The part of the CBA that is meant to rule on this matter indicates "that the tender will apply to the position in which the player participated in the most plays."
In the end, the matter could go before an arbitrator, who would make a decision that could wind up affecting future negotiations between other teams and their impending free agent TEs. Eventually, however, this could just be a bump in the road between Cook and the Titans: last offseason's taggee, S Michael Griffin, agreed to a long-term deal with the club later on in the spring, and this could be the case for Cook as well in the coming months.
