Randall Cobb wants to break more tackles
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb (18) celebrates a catch during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers during the 2013 NFC wild card playoff football game at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Green Bay Packers star wide receiver Randall Cobb is one of the game’s most explosive playmakers, and he caught the game-winning touchdown pass in Week 17 to send the Packers to the playoffs- it was his first game back from an injury. Cobb averaged 72.2 yards per game in just six games (he was limited in two of them due to injury or snap count regulations), and he had 80 receptions and eight receiving touchdowns when he was fully healthy in 2012.
There is little doubt that Cobb is the team’s No. 2 receiving threat behind Jordy Nelson, and he’s a guy who can take it to the house on any given play. The Packers were forced to limit his snaps again yesterday against the San Francisco 49ers, but he was still able to make two crucial catches- one that featured his ability to get big yards after the catch and another that was on fourth down.
But despite being one of the best playmaking wide receivers in the game, the 23-year-old Kentucky product wants to do more to help Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Heck, he’s even a bit frustrated, and he really believes that he needs to break more tackles in order to make the jump from “good” to “great”, via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “I’ve got to get better at breaking tackles. If I want to be a great player — and not just a good player — I have to do more. I have to be more. I’m going to take that upon myself this off-season. I’m going to let this pain that I feel right now fuel me to come back stronger and better next season.”
A lot of playmakers state their desire to get bigger and stronger in an effort to break more tackles, but they fail to realize that bigger players break tackles as a way to compensate for their lack of agility and inability to force missed tackles through jukes etc. At 192 pounds Cobb could bulk up a little bit, but is it worth sacrificing some of his game-breaking speed and “wiggle”? I say no. Plus, Cobb is already a “great” player, and the only thing that hurt him this season was that fractured fibula.