Holy crap. The Patriots really don’t like paying people. How else to explain the decision to ship Brandin Cooks to the Rams?
Cooks is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Like Odell Beckham, he wants and needs a new contract. Both of those guys have dramatically outperformed Sammy Watkins, who signed a three-year deal with Kansas City worth $48 million.
The Patriots apparently don’t want to pay that kind of money to a wide receiver, so they’re moving him to the Rams. They’ll pick up a first-round pick in return – the 23rd selection. The price tag comes in a little lower than that when you factor in that they’ll send a fourth-round pick to Los Angeles while getting a sixth-rounder in return.
Is there something about Cooks that teams don’t like? I found it odd last year when the Saints were also willing to move him for a first-round pick.
In this case, it’s doubly unusual because the Patriots have issues with pass catchers. Rob Gronkowski is pondering whether he wants to play anymore. Danny Amendola signed with Miami. Julian Edelman is coming off a torn ACL and will be 32 in May. With the way Edelman plays, he’s had all kinds of injuries during his career, including two surgeries on each foot.
The Patriots still have Chris Hogan. They didn’t get much of anything out of Philip Dorsett last year. They really need Malcolm Mitchell to develop into what he appeared to be early in his first season.
With Cooks, I was surprised last year when he played almost exclusively as an outside receiver. With his quickness I figured they’d use him some in the slot. I figured they might be thinking about making Cooks their Welker-Edelman slot guy perhaps this season.
But it’s not happening. Cooks heads to the Rams, who are now overflowing with pass-catching talent. Los Angeles probably will have Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods running a lot of short routes. Cooks perhaps plugs into the Watkins deep-threat role, and maybe Jared Goff will be more ready to connect on more of those passes this year.
Cooks gets traded two years in a row, but you can’t say he hasn’t been productive on the field. Over the last two years, 85 wide receivers have seen at least 100 targets. Of that group, only Julio Jones has averaged more yards per pass play.
(Rather than showing you all 85, I’m showing here only the 27 with at least 200 targets.)
| RECEIVERS WITH 200 TARGETS (2016-2017) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Yd/Tgt |
| Julio Jones | 277 | 171 | 2,853 | 16.7 | 9 | 10.3 |
| Brandin Cooks | 231 | 143 | 2,255 | 15.8 | 15 | 9.8 |
| Marvin Jones | 210 | 116 | 2,031 | 17.5 | 13 | 9.7 |
| Adam Thielen | 234 | 160 | 2,243 | 14.0 | 9 | 9.6 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 264 | 148 | 2,414 | 16.3 | 10 | 9.1 |
| Antonio Brown | 317 | 207 | 2,817 | 13.6 | 21 | 8.9 |
| Michael Thomas | 270 | 196 | 2,382 | 12.2 | 14 | 8.8 |
| Doug Baldwin | 241 | 169 | 2,119 | 12.5 | 15 | 8.8 |
| Mike Wallace | 208 | 124 | 1,765 | 14.2 | 8 | 8.5 |
| Stefon Diggs | 207 | 148 | 1,752 | 11.8 | 11 | 8.5 |
| A.J. Green | 243 | 141 | 2,042 | 14.5 | 12 | 8.4 |
| Golden Tate | 255 | 183 | 2,080 | 11.4 | 9 | 8.2 |
| Jamison Crowder | 202 | 133 | 1,636 | 12.3 | 10 | 8.1 |
| Amari Cooper | 228 | 131 | 1,833 | 14.0 | 12 | 8.0 |
| Odell Beckham | 210 | 126 | 1,669 | 13.2 | 13 | 7.9 |
| Davante Adams | 238 | 149 | 1,882 | 12.6 | 22 | 7.9 |
| Marqise Lee | 201 | 119 | 1,553 | 13.1 | 6 | 7.7 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 214 | 109 | 1,610 | 14.8 | 11 | 7.5 |
| Mike Evans | 309 | 167 | 2,322 | 13.9 | 17 | 7.5 |
| Jarvis Landry | 292 | 206 | 2,123 | 10.3 | 13 | 7.3 |
| Jordy Nelson | 240 | 150 | 1,739 | 11.6 | 20 | 7.2 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 325 | 174 | 2,332 | 13.4 | 17 | 7.2 |
| Dez Bryant | 228 | 119 | 1,634 | 13.7 | 14 | 7.2 |
| Demaryius Thomas | 284 | 173 | 2,032 | 11.7 | 10 | 7.2 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 311 | 216 | 2,179 | 10.1 | 12 | 7.0 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 229 | 126 | 1,587 | 12.6 | 7 | 6.9 |
| Michael Crabtree | 246 | 147 | 1,621 | 11.0 | 16 | 6.6 |
—Ian Allan