It's probably not quite that simplistic but it underscores Aaron's plea to bring him back. Jared Cook made one heckuva difference.

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Either Cook is worse than the TE of Rookie R.Rodgers/Quarles or something entirely other than Cook made the difference.

IN 2014 with Rookie Rodgers and Quarles at TE; with a worse OL [Rookie Linsley at C; rookie Bahktieri at LT; Sitton instead of Taylor] Rodgers was 12-4, with a 112.2 Passer rating and 38 TDs and 5 INTs.

I wish someone else had made the response you made only to see the novella you'd type shaking your head over the faulty comparison.

12 wasn't in a funk in 2014. He was in 2015 and 2016.

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While the teams all have "G" on their helmets you can't compare 2014 to 2016. As you noted the OL was different. The RBs were different. The WRs as well as the defense.

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WPR, that's a solid point. If we were using total offensive yards as the measure of performance the D might play a bigger role in the measurement; but we're using passer rating. Even if the D gave Rodgers more drives to work with in 2014 [That'd be an interesting stat for you to research 😂]. Rodgers' efficiency with however many drives he had is equalized by measuring with passer rating and its the same.

On offense Rookie Lacy was pretty good; but Monty was dynamic. You had all the same receivers; Allison for Boykin, 3rd year Adams for rookie Adams; hobbled Jordy for super Jordy; maybe a slight advantage to 2014. This year Rodgers had an All-pro LT and had a pretty shaky one in 2014. Whatever advantage 2014 Rodgers had with Lacy and Old Jordy were easy set-off by drastic improvement in 2 probowlers, Adams and Bahktieri [Bak is 100% legit; Adams, not sure how he got it, but he's close to being all pro].

And teams change from year to year; but sometimes they change in season. The last 2 years our team has been schizophrenic. Not having a Cook-like TE didn't make us go form good to bad in 2015; our offense in 2014 was great without him or his kind.

Also, Cook started the first 2 games. He played 53% of snaps in game one...65% in game 2...The offense was bad in week one; horrific in week 2. "The Run" had NOTHING to do with Cook. Cook made WAAAAY to many mistakes to have made that much of a difference. The offense sucked with Cook present in the first half of ATL game. I see very little correlation between having a "field stretching TE" and the play of our offense. On the other hand if we correlate quality of QB play with offensive output, then you got a causal affect. And there is no correlation between good and bad QB play and the presence of a "field stretching TE."

In summary, all I'm saying is if the Cook-type TE was so important; it would have manifesting itself more obviously in the stats over the last 3 years.