National Football League

Packers TE Jared Cook's chest injury reportedly isn't serious

Published Dec. 14, 2016 8:37 a.m. ET

Dan Graf

One big reason the Green Bay Packers’ offense has gone from bumbling to beautiful during the team’s recent three-game winning streak apparently will stay on the field.

Tight end Jared Cook -- whose Week 11 return from a high ankle sprain culminated with the Packers’ recent offensive explosion -- left the first half of Sunday’s win against the Seahawks with what was described as a chest injury, but it turns out holding him out was simply precautionary.

According to NFL Network, Cook has a lung contusion.

That’s great news for the Packers, who were sorely lacking Cook’s ability to get open in the middle of the field both before they signed him last season and then after he was hurt during Week 3. He returned with six catches for 105 yards and a touchdown in a Week 11 loss to the Redskins, and defenses having to account for him since has allowed the Packers’ wideouts to get open in a way they hadn’t for at least a year.

Coach Mike McCarthy’s offense was always at its best when it had Jermichael Finley streaking down the seam, but that threat has been absent since a neck injury forced him to retire in 2013. Cook isn’t the player Finley was, but he’s proven in the past four games that he’s absolutely essential to Aaron Rodgers, who has 10 touchdown passes and zero interceptions in that span.

#Packers TE Jared Cook was held out Sunday for precautionary reasons after suffering a lung contusion, source said. Should be OK.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 12, 2016