We included the Green Bay Packers' Randall Cobb as part of our "Making the Leap" series because of his potential at wide receiver. He's already made the leap to being one of the best return men in the NFL.
Cobb finished second in the NFL in kickoff-return average last season and seventh in punt returns. The Packers would wind up facing the same question that the Chicago Bears get asked with Devin Hester each year: Will Green Bay sacrifice some of its return game by using Cobb at receiver?
That shouldn't be a problem for 2012. Packers special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum told Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com that Cobb will remain in his return role, no matter what he's doing on offense.
"It's all in the perspective, of how you look at the return game. It is the first play of the offense?" Slocum said in a Sunday report. "It's vitally important to setting up field position, the potential to score, things of that nature."
This is what you call a high-class problem. If Cobb was ever to move off returns, it probably wouldn't come until 2013. The Packers have more than enough depth at wideout to increasingly use Cobb as a reserve receiver without burning him out. James Jones and Donald Driver will get plenty of snaps off the bench, too.
