The bread and butter of our offense is the WR shallow cross, with the WR starting from being lined up at any position.
Edelman was special because, though smurfy in height, he'd regularly win battles at the line of scrimmage and also then create space with short area quickness. Nobody else save Amendola comes even halfway toward matching those two skills in the same person.
Cooks and Dorsett have vertical speed, some short area quickness, but are seemingly unable to win at the LOS in crossing routes, thus they are not good "quick hit" targets. Hogan has decent vertical speed, seems to lack short area quickness, but can win more often at the LOS. Mitchell, if healthy, is probably more like Hogan.
I'm guessing Britt is here for a 2018 audition as a guy who might win LOS battles and be a more viable target on shallow crosses. I just don't know that he has the short area quickness to obtain a larger role, even next year.
Training camps in the system might help Cooks and even Dorsett with their techniques in getting off the LOS, so I hope that even Dorsett can stick around due to his age and physical ability, but his days might be numbered
Effective running of shallow crossers and other short routes seems likely to be as much about (or more about) learned technique (footwork as well as route-running) as it is about native physical agility.
Some agility testing comps:
Edelman: 3.92 ss ... 6.62 3c (4.52/40)
Amendola: 4.25 ss ... 6.81 3c (4.58/40)
Jarvis Landry: 4.59 ss ... 7.56 3c (4.71/40)
Britt: 4.47 ss (same as Gronk)
Cooks: 3.81 ss ... 6.76 3c (4.33/40)
Dorsett: 4.11 ss ... 6.70 3c (4.33/40)
McCarron: 4.16 ss ... 6.59 3c (4.41/40)
None of the first group timed particularly well in the 40, so it seems highly unlikely that they'd have been used to take the top off the defense very often (and Edelman didn't play WR in college, anyway).
The guys in the second group appear to have relatively elite long speed, so it seems likely to me that it's the first thing (perhaps the
only thing) that their early coaches developed and exploited. IOW, they may have had very little training/experience in the art of running the shallow route (McCarron may be somewhat an exception, since I seem to recall seeing him turn short crossers into long gains with his speed on college highlight reels).
Neither Cooks nor Dorsett appear to have been effective running shallow routes
this season, but I'm not certain that this means they "can't" at some point in the future. Statistical point: Dorsett has 7 receptions for 120 yds (20.0 ypc). However, two of those receptions went for 38 yds and 39 yds. Simple math shows that his other 5 catches gained 43 total yards = an 8.6 ypc. Obviously, he's run SOME shallower routes (though not necessarily Edelman's bread-and-butter routes).
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that either Cooks/Dorsett could - or SHOULD - become an Edelman replacement. That would be a waste of their long speed. However, it seems possible to me that, with proper development and training in the basic footwork and route-technique, become sufficiently effective at shallow crossers, etc. to diversify their legitimate route portfolios (and help the passing game in more than one way). They're both only 24, so there's still plenty of time for them to develop into more complete pass-catchers.
So, why aren't they "there" yet?
It's been reported that Cooks sometimes ran a shallower route for Brees, and that the Saints appear to be using a route-concept system and verbiage that is very similar to what the Pats use.
Similar, but not necessarily identical, so there's certainly been some learning curve for Cooks, even on the routes that he
has been running for the Pats
this season. BB has said that spring practices and OTAs are primarily focused on learning/correcting/refining technique and that, by the time the team gets to Camp, practice is almost entirely about installation (and, obviously, Dorsett had none of that with the Pats). Then, once the season starts, the practice is on game plans and expanding the playbook. So, Dorsett may be mostly getting by this season on what he knew before he got here. Given where he came from, that might not be a whole lot.
In an ideal world, Cooks maybe might have received some training in shallower routes over the summer. In the real world, with restricted practice time and reps - and with Edelman healthy right up to the last minute before the season started - it seems likely to me that that McD focused on getting Cooks up to speed on the routes that Edelman doesn't typically run.
By the start of
next season though, Cooks (and Dorsett, if he's retained), may be a bit more well-rounded. We'll see how that goes.
