The Green Bay Packers finished their 2015 season with a 26-20 overtime loss at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. What grade should Randall Cobb get for the season that he put together?
Quite simply, it was a bit of a disappointing year for the Packers' offense. After seeing Jordy Nelson go down with a torn ACL, Cobb was expected to step into the No. 1 receiver role and help keep everything in order. That didn't end up happening and Cobb seemed to struggle throughout the majority of the season.
Cobb signed a four-year, $40 million contract ahead of the season and bringing him back was regarded as one of the best moves of the offseason.
During the 2015 season, Cobb ended up catching 79 passes for 829 yards and six touchdowns. He was also used as a running back at times with the struggles that Eddie Lacy had. Cobb carried the football 13 times for 50 yards on the season, although that picked up late in the year and even into the postseason.
While Cobb did struggle this season, not all of those struggles can be put on his shoulders alone.
Nelson is obviously the No. 1 receiver that Green Bay needs, but no one stepped up behind Cobb to take the pressure off of him. Davante Adams failed to live up to the hype in his second NFL season and the rest of the wide receiving corps wasn't ready to step into bigger shoes either. Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis came on strong when finally given an opportunity in the playoffs, but that was too late.
At just 25 years old, Cobb had never had to deal with the coverage that he faced in 2015. He was viewed as the top threat by opposing defenses and it was obvious that he was struggling with finding ways to get open due to that extra coverage.
Green Bay can't be terribly disappointed with Cobb fo those reasons. Throwing a young receiver who is used to being a No. 2 target to the wolves doesn't normally work very well. They didn't have any other choice, but Cobb obviously needed more time to get used to the idea.
Grading Cobb's season is difficult because of all the adversity that the Packers went through.
All of that being said, he does have to be penalized for the inconsistency that he showed. He also needs to be praised for finding ways to make impacts on the game even with all of the team struggling.
Randall Cobb 2015 NFL Season Grade: B+
