There is a general inkling in fantasy football that the third year of a wide receiver’s career can and usually is their breakout year in the NFL. Over the course of the off-season, Razzball will take a look at some wideouts heading into their third year in the league and see if they’re a breakout candidate for 2013 fantasy football. This week we will review Randall Cobb.
What a difference a year and an injury can make. A year after plenty of hype surrounding his rookie year as a draft day sleeper, Cobb was again touted in 2012 as the great draft day diamond in the wee round rough. And not unlike his rookie year, Cobb had a big week 1 game silencing naysayers about the sleeper hype. But a funny thing happened that changed the course of his 2012 season compared to 2011. Namely, injuries. Injuries that made the Green Bay receiving crew do a bit of a 180 from what fantasy owners have come to expect from the land of the Cheeseheads. You see, Greg Jennings lived up to his Spice Girl nickname Old Spice by playing hurt most of the season, freeing up some targets for other Green Bay receivers. And while we’re on the topic of Old Spice, if you have a youtube account I strongly encourage you to subscribe to their channel. No company I know of in recent memory has matched the WTF’ery of old Skittles commercials quite like these guys. BTW, that last link is not really an original Skittles commercial. BTW part deux, it’s really not safe for work. BTW part trois, if Marshawn Lynch sees it, he may never eat Skittles again.  But enough about ‘tasting the rainbow’, we’re here to talk about Randall Cobb and what we should come to expect from him for 2013 fantasy football…
Before I rudely interrupted myself with a link to a Skittle facial – and here’s another hint to not open that link at work or maybe ever – I was talking about how Greg Jennings’ injury really opened the door for Cobb to assert himself in 2012 as a target for Aaron Rodgers. Well to be fair, it was an odd year in general for the Packers wide receiver attack as Jordy Nelson also had an inconsistent year brought on in part by injuries. Overall, it was a shot for Randall Cobb to shine and he ran with it. No really, he was not only great in the passing game with 80 receptions for 954 yards and 8 touchdowns but he also contributed 132 rushing yards on 10 carries. When you factor in this type of diversity on the field and add kick/punt return duties, a guy like Cobb is going to have the opportunity not only to score big but also provide consistency, especially in PPR leagues. Since we’ve already gone over Greg Jennings now a Viking, the time is nigh for Randall to shine.
Overall, Cobb has been favorably compared to Percy Harvin and the idea behind that is very reasonable. Both are great in the slot and do most of their damage in open space with the ball rather than as downfield threats. Throw in they’re both slightly small for their respective positions but very capable running the ball out of the backfield, you could almost call Randall a clone. However, as you can tell from the previous Harvin link, I’m going to like Cobb more this year. Well with that, thanks for lending me your ear and let Randall getcha popcorn ready cuz 2013 is gonna be fresh off the Cobb. Wow, that was really corny. I’m a-maize-d the editor let it through.
Projections: 98 receptions, 1205 receiving yards, 84 rushing yards, 10 total touchdowns
