Tennessee Titans: Finding optimism on David Cobb
A fifth-round pick out of Minnesota, Tennessee Titans rookie running back David Cobb was hyped up as a sleeper by some due to his power, balance, and vision, and it seemed like he could become a steady presence on the ground for Tennessee.
David Cobb had a great opportunity to make his mark in the Tennessee Titans backfield last season, as neither Antonio Andrews nor 2014 second-round bust Bishop Sankey played well. Unfortunately for Cobb, he was even less efficient, as he averaged a team-low 2.8 yards per carry. Even Andrews mustered 3.6 yards per pop, leaving Cobb with 52 unimpressive carries on the season. Sankey was shoved into the doghouse with just 47 carries, but his 4.1 yards per attempt average easily bested Cobb’s thoroughly underwhelming mark.
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Heading into his second season, Cobb has designs on becoming the Titans starting running back, and the Tennessean’s John Glennon reported that Cobb would like to weigh under 220 pounds next season.
Although cutting weight will diminish Cobb’s greatest strength, his power, playing at a lighter weight should do him well as a whole. In his first season, Cobb struggled mightily with making defenders miss, and he looked like one of the league’s least dangerous plodders. “Slow” and “lacks explosion” are descriptions that are death-knells for running backs, specifically those who ran sub-4.80 forty yard dashes as draft prospects.
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Just about the only thing that went well for Cobb in his first season is the fact that he never lost a fumble, though it’s hard to praise him for avoiding fumbling issues (he had problems with that in his final year in college) in just 53 touches. All of the other numbers on Cobb’s stat sheet look dreadful, as he averaged under three yards per attempt, scored just once, and made no impact in the passing game with just one catch for negative two yards on the season.
But with any awful rookie season, there are still reasons for optimism we can uncover. Even though we can’t praise Cobb for any specific, positive traits he showed, we can point to certain factors as reasons for his lack of production or efficiency in his debut season.
Firstly, the Titans blocking was less-than-optimal, as was their deep passing game. Aside from gadget player Dexter McCluster, none of the Titans backs averaged a steady number of yards per run. Now, that’s mostly because all of the Titans backs played poorly, but perhaps Cobb’s struggles are due to circumstance.
That argument above, of course, is the flimsiest one when it comes to allaying fears that Cobb is nothing more than late-round, backup fodder. More convincing is the argument that Cobb wasn’t given a real shot at showing his stuff for the Titans, because, based on what he know about him from his days in college, he is the type of running back who needs to get into a rhythm.
Sometimes, analysts talk about how a running back needs to be given consistent carries in a game in order to impress, and Cobb, on the surface, looks like the type of back who needs to “chew” carries before he can get some momentum going. In college, Cobb was an every-down workhorse who won with toughness, smart cuts to the outside, and powerful rushing in between the tackles. He racked up carries, racked up yardage, and scored touchdowns.
Last season, Cobb did none of those things, and it’s worth noting that he carried the ball more than ten times just twice. When given a career-high 19 carries in the Titans finale against the Indianapolis Colts, Cobb actually played pretty well with 73 yards and a touchdown on those 19 touches.
3.8 yards per carry against a Colts defense that allowed 4.3 yards per carry during the season hardly seems worthy of praise, but recall that this average is a full yard per carry higher than Cobb’s season average of 2.8. Also, bear in mind that the Titans most-used back, Andrews with 143 carries, only averaged 3.6 yards per pop during the entire season; this caveats make Cobb’s numbers look better. Oh, and one more thing: the Titans had just 94 net passing yards as an offense, meaning that Cobb received no help from Alex Tanney or Zach Mettenberger.
Am I a Cobb optimist? No, and I am one of those who would like to see the Titans take a running back with considerably more talent, such as Arkansas product Alex Collins. However, I like to seek bright spots, and Cobb does have some traits as a powerful rusher that could be useful in the Titans offense.
Ultimately, I think the Titans are much better off going in a different direction and finding a better workhorse back. Maybe Cobb’s toughness and ability to change directions smoothly turn him into a worthy starting back, and cutting weight should help. However, since Cobb’s rushing style seems to indicate that he needs a high number of carries in order to be effective, he probably isn’t good enough to deserve those carries.
If cutting weight can help him play with more explosiveness and lateral agility, which he is woefully lacking in, then maybe he can be the answer for the Titans. But if he can’t establish himself as a worthy committee option, particularly since he showed nothing in the passing game as a rookie, then his future with Tennessee might not be bright.
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That said, we’re in the business of optimism, right? For a fifth-round pick, a shot at starting is an achievement, and I expect the Titans to give Cobb at least a chance to prove himself in 2016. More carries could help him, though, again, he needs to show that he can make up for his current lack of speed and agility.