Week 8: The Big Change
Omar Cooper Jr.’s first two complete NFL games produced 218 yards, two touchdowns, and one receiver room with a new seating chart.
New York traded up to draft Cooper 30th overall, so nobody found this man behind a Wawa.
Cooper caught six of seven targets for 103 yards and a touchdown against New England in Week 6. He followed that by catching all five targets for 115 yards and another score against Miami. New England Patriots and New York Jets
He’s also the second Jets rookie, after Al Toon in 1985, to post consecutive 100-yard games. Cooper is the first Jets rookie since the merger to add a touchdown in both of them.
Those records are nice. The usage matters more.
Cooper’s role
Cooper played 82% of the offensive snaps and ran 26 routes in Week 6. Adonai Mitchell returned in Week 7, yet Cooper still played 64% of the snaps and ran 22 routes, ahead of Mitchell’s 18. When the Jets used two receivers, Garrett Wilson played all 13 snaps, Cooper played eight, and Mitchell played three. RotoWire
That’s the depth chart telling us Cooper kept the No. 2 job. Mitchell came back and found somebody else drinking from his coffee mug.
Cooper has drawn 12 targets across the two games, good for a 20.7% share of New York’s charted attempts. His 27% targets-per-route rate is strong enough to support the breakout, although his current production is wearing platform shoes. Eleven catches on 12 targets won’t hold, and gains of 48, 52, and 60 yards account for most of those 218 yards.
Start him as a WR3 or flex. Don’t price him like an established top-24 receiver until his route share climbs closer to 80%.
Week 8 still sets up well. Las Vegas had allowed 16 passing touchdowns entering the week, tied for the second-most in the league. NFL.com
Garrett Wilson’s ceiling
Cooper has out-targeted Wilson 12 to nine over the past two games. Wilson caught six passes for 70 yards during that stretch after owning a 30.2% target share through Week 5.
That’s a real ceiling cut, but Wilson remains the Jets’ primary receiver. He played 83% of the Week 7 snaps, led the group with 25 routes, and took every snap in two-receiver personnel. Geno Smith said defenses were devoting extra attention to Wilson and acknowledged that New York needed to involve him earlier. New York Jets
Wilson now belongs in the low-end WR2 range instead of carrying automatic WR1 volume. Cooper gives Smith another place to throw the ball, which helps the offense while taking a few fries off Wilson’s plate. He’s still eating.
Adonai Mitchell’s role
Mitchell took the full hit. In his Week 7 return, he played 42% of the snaps, ran 18 routes, and caught none of three targets. Cooper beat him in three-receiver sets and buried him when the Jets went two-wide.
Mitchell is a dynasty hold and a deep-league bench stash. Normal redraft managers don’t need to keep staring at him like the last mozzarella stick at the bar. Cooper has the usable role.
Geno Smith and Mason Taylor
Smith completed 23 of 30 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns against Miami, and Cooper’s emergence gives him a second explosive receiver beside Wilson. That makes Smith a useful Week 8 streamer against Las Vegas, although he remains a matchup play rather than an automatic QB1. New York Jets
Mason Taylor also caught five passes for 62 yards and two touchdowns on six targets. His red-zone work adds another mouth to the offense and another reason to stop projecting Cooper’s current touchdown rate as if defenses have agreed to keep losing him.
Cooper has earned a weekly lineup spot.
ZeroChalk is not affiliated with the NFL, NFL teams, or the NFLPA. Injury and role calls are best-guess reads from public practice and camp reporting, not inside information.