Start or Sit Jared Cook in Fantasy Football Week Six?
Five weeks of the NFL season are in the books. This means that in most leagues, we have only eight weeks left of the fantasy football regular season. The bad news is that for some of us, the season is already over one-third gone. The good news is that we still have nearly two-thirds of the season left. Time to dig ourselves out of holes and make a serious run at the fantasy football playoffs. In order to help you with your fantasy football decisions, Football Absurdity keys in on some players every week on the fringes of startability and helps you decide what you should do with them. This week, we take a look at whether you should start or sit Jared Cook, as the Oakland Raiders face the Seattle Seahawks in Jolly Ol’ England.
Jared Cook started his 2018 campaign with a bang, notching nine receptions on twelve targets for 180 yards week one against the Los Angeles Rams. To say that this was out of line with his career norms would be a complete understatement. It was his career high in yards, targets, and receptions. Since then, however, he’s had a bit more of an inconsistent production level. Sure, he busted out against the Browns a couple of weeks ago for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Despite his massive game against the Browns, he still isn’t posting the under-the-hood numbers of elite tight ends. He has just 13 more air yards than Austin Hooper and the target share of Geoff Swaim. He’s getting a decent amount of targets, but he has fewer than fifty yards three times this season to go alongside his two blowup games. He has a pattern of a boom-bust tight end who needs a good matchup to produce.
This weekend, he does not get a good matchup. Throw out that the Raiders have to go from Oakland to London and deal with that whole body clock nonsense that is likely to throw off Cook and the Oakland offense. The Seahawks have one of the best defenses at stopping opposing tight ends this season, allowing the sixth-fewest fantasy points to tight ends. They’ve allowed just one tight end to score a touchdown this season, and only Ricky Seals-Jones topped 47 yards against them. Of note, that tight end score was Trey Burton scoring when the Seahawks were without superstar linebacker Bobby Wagner in tow. Remove the Bears game, and they allow 6.7 fantasy points per contest to tight ends in half-PPR, which would be the third-lowest in the league. Expect a lot of Wagner ruining Jared Cook’s day this weekend.
Jared Cook had a huge first game of the season, but since then, he has been riding high on that boom, alongside the Cleveland boom. Between those games, however, is the same old Jared Cook. He needs a great matchup to succeed, and unfortunately, he does not have one this weekend in London. If you’re wondering if you should start or sit Jared Cook, sit him this weekend. Don’t believe his lies.
If you have more fantasy football questions like “Start or Sit Austin Hooper?” then check out our other start/sits for the week:
Start or Sit Blake Bortles?
Start or Sit Jameis Winston?
Start or Sit LeSean McCoy?
Start or Sit Aaron Jones?
Start or Sit Mohamed Sanu?
Start or Sit Allen Robinson?
Start or Sit Austin Hooper?
