Forecasting Saints top 3 WR's catches and yards

Colston 74 for 830
Cooks 68 for 920
Stills 56 for 723

No Jimmy?

I think a lot will depend on how much of each role these guys play and who ends up as our 4th WR.

Colston is still going to be Colston and get all the tough possession catches.

Stills and Cooks can be interchangeable as deep threats and running quick hitting routes.

So if we take Morgan or Meachem into games that will eat into some of the deep threat catches for Cooks and Stills. If we take Toon or Coleman if he makes it they could eat into some of Colston's catches(and to a much lesser degree some of the deep stuff).

I think your numbers look pretty solid, but you also have to factor in that we took away 2 targets(Moore and Sproles) and only added Cooks. They combined for 100+ catches.

Meachem got 16 catches as the 4th receiver(we only carried 5 into games 2 weeks). You also have to question if PT will actually get 77 catches again and/or if the other backs actually get some of Sproles'/PT's targets.

So it's quite possible Colston's catches go up or down, and I think either Cooks or Stills is a little low. Quite possible we have 3 WRs with 1,000 yards or close to it on top of Graham's 1,000 yards.

Colston
70 catches 950 yards (13.6avg)

Stills
50 catches 850 yards (17.0avg)

Cooks
60 catches 800 yards (13.3avg)

Colston is getting one year older, but he's never relied heavily on his speed, but more on precise route running, brees having time, and exposing the middle. With our OL in tact and performing up to expectations and running game back to decent form, expect colston to still be our #1 WR with JG being our #1 target.

Stills won't average his 20avg, but he is still an underrated burner that gets behind defenses. With the loss of Darren Sproles and Lance Moore, there are about 100 more catches available for these receivers. Expect Stills production to slightly increase his catches, but still make a statement with a 17 avg

The saints traded up for some undersized midget receiver by the name of Cooks. He's a Djax, Austin, or Cobb clone. Does it matter? He's a simple play maker. With Sproles and Lance moore missing, expect this midget to be CSP's new toy and 'x' factor. I wouldn't be surprised if my #s were under as I could simply see him catching 80-90 balls similarly to sproles. I expect him to be more productive in his playmaking abilities than sproles was last year.

Just some last year numbers to help get an idea. Brees completed 446 passes. 4 guys caught 70 or more passes(2 HBs, 1 TE, and 1 WR). 2 guys caught 30+ passes(2 WRs). No one else caught even 20 balls.

378 of Brees' 446 completions(85%) were caught by those 6. We lost 2 of them(1 70+ and 1 30+). We only added 1 guy that could easily get 30+ catches. Everyone else is a question mark.

Assuming Graham gets 85 and Colston gets 75 for simplicity's sake(about what they got last year), that's 160. That leaves about 220 catches for PT, Stills, and Cooks and another 70 for the rest if it breaks down about the same.

Split evenly PT, Stills, and Cooks would each get about 70 catches.

quote:

---

I said possible, not likely. And it's not like your numbers are far off from that.

---

i guess if you define close as being within 300 yards then go for it but i didn't give one WR a 1000 yds and you're giving the team a total of 4!

a rookie wr getting 70 catches and/or 1000 yards is pretty damn tough to come by.

LINK

I honestly don't see 3 fwiw unless the two young birds (stills/cooks) set the world on fire.

I see legitimately 2. Colston has always played under the radar and if Cooks/JG end up demolishing our first 4 games, you'll see colston/stills free a lot more often

I see us trying to transition to a little bit more balanced offense. 2009, Colston was our only 1k receiver. I see that being Jimmy now. With us having 3 wr's all tied pretty close but realistically speaking, they all won't be "that" close to 1k.