(04-30-2018, 09:46 PM)MalabarJag Wrote: [ -> ] (04-30-2018, 03:34 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: [ -> ]We still could have signed him after the draft. He wasn't gonna get drafted.
I agree with O-Line on this. If the goal is to replace Nortman with a cheap punter, there are always a ton of out-of-work punters to choose from. You don't need to waste a draft pick on one. Chances are the Jags could have signed him as an undrafted free agent. Instead, take a flier on a fast CB or LB. Jacobs was one, but you have a better chance with two longshots.
And Cooke is statistically terrible with a 42.7 best season average. As I pointed out in another thread, that would be 33rd in the NFL last year. For those of you who don't know, there are only 32 teams.
Maybe he has a great hang time. Maybe there's a flaw in his delivery that can be fixed. And just maybe one of those things would have been mentioned to justify the pick to the fans if either was the case.
This also brings up an interesting question. With all other things (hang time, consistency) being equal, what is the salary cap value per additional yard of punting average? Is saving $2M but losing 3 yards per punt a good value? Or looking at it from the other side, is an additional three yards per punt worth giving up $2M in salary cap space?
So I went to the only person I know who can adequately evaluate Logan Cooke: someone who watched him play every week for his entire Mississippi State career. i.e., not me. I also went digging for scouting reports that would explain why we replaced a bad punter with one that had an abysmal gross average, and I did find a few promising notes that seemed to be in agreement across both sources.
On the plus side, he is very much a hangtime punter. He bangs the ball high and short, which fits perfectly with the Joe DeCamillis methodology. It also, coincidentally, goes a long way towards fixing the biggest problem with our punting unit last season: a punter with enough leg and so little hangtime that the ball would get to the returner ten yards before his gunners did. If Cooke fixes that one problem just by being more of a directional guy, then that's a step up. He's also got a strong leg on kickoffs, so we might see him get a chance to take those from Lambo.
I mean, at this point, who knows? Maybe Cooke is the next punter. Maybe there's a Chris Hanson lurking out there waiting to be plucked off the scrap heap to unseat the draft pick. At the very end of the 7th round, a punter that might make the team carries all the value of an offensive lineman that won't. The Jaguars have made it clear this offseason by signing Paul and drafting Jacobs and Cooke (among other moves) that building up special teams is as much a focus as putting support around Bortles. When you think about how many times a Nortman punt had you facepalming, is that focus on ST really such a bad thing?