The New Orleans Saints are coming off a 2018 campaign in which they won a league-best 13 games and made the NFC Championship Game before suffering a devastating and controversial loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Jared Cook wants to take them one step beyond.

The Saints entered the offseason full of questions, losing key players (running back Mark Ingram) and wondering how much time they have left with 40-year-old quarterback Drew Brees.

New Orleans smartly decided to get Brees another weapon, signing former Oakland Raiders tight end Jared Cook.

Cook hauled in 68 receptions for 896 yards and six touchdowns this past season, essentially doubling up the production that Ben Watson gave the Saints at the tight end position.

Obviously, that is a big difference, and for a New Orleans receiver corps that is very thin outside of Michael Thomas, that is a huge pickup that could end up vaulting the Saints into the Super Bowl.

Of course, New Orleans still isn't the greatest defensive team, but if the Saints are able to pile up enough offense, it will greatly mitigate their shortcomings on the other side of the ball.

Plus, in today's NFL, offense is becoming more and more imperative, and while defense still wins championships for the most part, offense is catching up.

So, back to Cook.

Let's think about Brees for a second. This past year represented the first time since Brees' final season with the San Diego Chargers in 2005 that he finished with under 4,000 yards.

While he remains an elite quarterback, it's obvious that he can't do the things he once did, and he now has to rely far more on short and intermediate routes than he ever did before.

That makes having a reliable target at tight end all the more important, and Cook should provide that for Brees much as Jimmy Graham did during his time in New Orleans.

Now, to be fair, we don't really know how Cook is going to react to his new surroundings. The Saints run a far different offense from the Raiders, and the one time Cook played for a legitimate contender with the Green Bay Packers in 2016, he was underwhelming.

In other words, we really can't say for sure if Cook's production was a result of racking up numbers on bad teams or if he is just a good player who has been in some bad situations.

We'll find out in September, but one thing is for sure: If Cook can play the way he did in Oakland in 2018, he will provide the Saints' offense a major lift. Brees won't have to depend on Thomas for 125 catches again.

As explosive as New Orleans' offense was this past year, replicating that success while relying so heavily on one player does not seem all that sustainable, which makes the addition of Cook that much more consequential.

It would also be nice if a true No. 2 receiver stepped up for the Saints to take some of the load off Thomas and provide Brees another option, but if that doesn't occur, perhaps Cook will be the X-factor Brees and New Orleans need.