Brandin Cooks, Mike Evans post great 40 yard dash times
Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver Mike Evans (13) warms up. Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
Oregon State Beavers wide receiver Brandin Cooks is a blazing playmaker, and he will likely end up being picked in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft despite the amount of depth at the position. Cooks gets miscast as a Tavon Austin type of receiver, because he’s so much more than Austin as a pass-catcher. I like the loose comparisons to New York Giants star Victor Cruz, because Cooks has the quickness to win in the slot, the ability to generate major YAC and make defenders miss off of screens, and the long speed and athleticism to win downfield and on the outside. He models his game after Steve Smith, and that can be readily seen in his tenacity and confidence.
Per the NFL Network, Cooks’s unofficial time was clocked at 4.30 seconds, which is pretty insane. We all knew he was going to have a scorching 40 time, but he just went on turbo speed and really helped his draft stock with a total that was even better than Odell Beckham Jr.’s numbers.
Texas A&M Aggies wideout Mike Evans is held in higher regard than Cooks, because he has ridiculous size, physicality, and ball skills and uses them both well. It sometimes seems like he lacks the long speed to gain separation when watching him on tape, but he really quelled those concerns with two very strong forty times of 4.47 and 4.50. Those times aren’t nearly as impressive as the ones Cooks put up, but you have to remember that Evans is much, much taller at 6’4″.