Cover / Artwork » Moving from Oakland to New Orleans was as much a persona

Pro Bowl tight end Jared Cook.“Location. Quarterback. Offense http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-cody-barton-jersey ,” Cook began. “It’s important that at this point in my career — I think it’s awesome — that I’m closer to home. Drew Brees is a great quarterback, approaches the game like true vet and like a true perfectionist. He does all the little thigs right.“I also have a chance to come in right now and make an impact,” Cook added Wednesday, a day after formally agreeing to a reported two-year, $15.5 million free-agent contract with New Orleans. “I have an opportunity to come in and be a huge part of a prolific and high-powered offense.”Cook complimented the Raiders for the way they played to his strengths and helped him have the best campaign of his 10-year career last season. He knew there were inherent risks in leaving a good situation. But he said those risks were mitigated considerably by what New Orleans had to offer.The Saints have been among NFL leaders in offense since coach Sean Payton began designing the plays and Brees began executing them back in 2006. There have been some seasons, particularly while Jimmy Graham was on the roster, when the tight end position accounted for a significant portion of the passing offense.But that did not happen for the Saints’ eighth-ranked offense last season. Three tight ends — Ben Watson, Josh Hill and Dan Arnold — combined for 63 catches for 735 yards and four touchdowns. And Watson, who led the position group with 35 catches for 400 yards and two TDs, has retired.The 6-foot-5, 254-pound Cook caught 68 passes for 896 yards and six touchdowns with Oakland last season and was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time.“The last few years I’ve been able to kind of learn under one offense, play with one quarterback, get to know that one quarterback pretty well Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey ,” Cook said. “That’s been the biggest different in the transition of my career as of late — and they actually used me what I’m good at.”Cook said Raiders coach Jon Gruden “found ways to expose matchups all over the field. He found ways to move me around in different positions to actually help me and make me more versatile.”In Payton’s first NFL job in Philadelphia, he worked under Gruden, and the two offensive-minded coaches have philosophical similarities. Payton also is known for shifting players’ roles — sometimes considerably — from week to week in search of favorable matchups.Cook was well aware of that because his tight ends coach in Oakland was Frank Smith, who worked on Payton’s staff in New Orleans from 2010-14. Cook said Smith often would touch on his experience with New Orleans when they talked football.“So, I knew a lot about the Saints and the guys in that building before I got down there,” Cook said.Another attraction was the opportunity to stress a secondary in tandem with Saints top receiver Michael Thomas.“It’s going to be huge for both of us,” Cook said. “I like his mentality. That’s something that you don’t find in a lot of receivers —that, ‘I’m going to go get mine, and I’m going to go get this and nobody’s going to be able to stop me —and I think that’s important to have in this league.”Cook, who turns 32 next month, was born in Alabama and grew up outside Atlanta, where he often watched the Falcons practice from a hilltop with his father. He played in college at South Carolina and began his NFL career with Tennessee, which traded with New England to get him during the third round of the 2009 draft.He spent his first four seasons in Tennessee http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-phil-haynes-jersey , where in 2011 he had 49 catches for 759 yards and three touchdowns.Cook later spent three seasons with the St. Louis Rams and one season with Green Bay before joining Oakland two seasons ago. In his career, Cook has 425 catches for 5,464 yards and 25 touchdowns.Being back near the Southeast puts Cook, who is married with children, in more manageable proximity to extended family and friends, he said. He sees that not as a distraction, but rather as a way to focus on football with greater peace of mind.“I have a bigger support system. I have more people around me and more family around me that can kind of help with daily life a little bit more,” Cook said. “It’s going to help me and my family out quite a bit.” Football purists are smiling. For one week, the video game nature of the NFL hit pause.Only one quarterback on Saturday or Sunday threw for 300 yards, let alone 400. No pinball shootouts.Ten players rushed for at least 100 yards, and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson went for 95.There were two shutouts!Quite the reality check to learn that strong defense, an efficient ground game, and control of the clock still can win. Yes Ugo Amadi Jersey , some nasty weather in Baltimore and the New Jersey Meadowlands contributed to the lower number of points. We figure to see more of that over the final two weeks of the schedule; it is December, after all.These developments, if they aren’t an aberration, could bode well for such teams as Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle — which actually was upset at San Francisco — and Dallas, which also lost, blanked at Indianapolis. They could be bad news for the high-scoring machines whose defenses are leaky, including previously considered powerhouses in Kansas City, New England and Pittsburgh.“You’ve got to stay on the field on offense,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Sunday after a wet 20-12 victory against Tampa Bay. “If you do that, you have a chance to generate some points.”And yards. Baltimore rushed for 242 of them on 49 attempts. Unheralded rookie Gus Edwards finished with 104. Jackson averaged 5.3 yards per rush and the Ravens are 4-1 since he replaced injured Joe Flacco as starter.“He makes you play 11-on-11 football instead of 11 on 10,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said of Jackson Dwayne Haskins Jersey , the 32nd overall pick in April’s draft. “We had him wrapped up a couple of times and he squirted out of there and was able to extend plays.”Ah yes, 11-on-11 football. Not the flag football, 44-40 variety that excites fantasy fanatics, but the balanced game in which solid tackling, crunching blocks and a variety of strategies are paramount.As the playoffs approach, the supersonic offenses could sputter. Teams primarily relying on them should know they might need to win man against man in the trenches, rule in a slugfest rather than in a points spree.Of the division leaders, the Saints and possibly the Rams own that balance, though neither is as physical as, say, the Cowboys,Bears or Seahawks. But the clubs unlikely to light up scoreboards also know if they can establish the tempo with their ground games and their stingy defenses — and an attitude that no opponent will intimidate them — they can be valid contenders in January.Two of those clubs took a step backward on Sunday. Still, the Cowboys figure to win the NFC East and the Seahawks aren’t likely to blow a wild-card spot. Rather than panic after their defeats — Seattle’s loss against the lowly 49ers being the more problematic — they’ll go back to what they do best.Because they have confidence in what they do best David Long Jersey , which helped them turn around 2018 after slow starts.“We didn’t give ourselves a chance,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said. “We weren’t scoring and so it wasn’t a complementary game of football. That’s what we’ve been playing these last five weeks and we didn’t do that tonight.”Heading into December, the prevailing view was that a prolific offense was a necessity to win the NFL championship. People became enamored of the fireworks the Rams, Saints, Chiefs and Chargers could provide.Now, with two weeks left in the schedule, it’s becoming clear that asymmetry isn’t such a great thing. Maybe some of the clubs who are showing they feature balanced game plans and approaches and talent — say Houston, Chicago, Indianapolis and the Chargers — should be reckoned with as much as New Orleans and Kansas City and the Rams.