By Jordan Long
The New England Patriots made a surprising move, this time trading wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the L.A. Rams as well as a 4th round pick. The Patriots received the Rams 1st-round pick which will be 23rd overall as well as a 6th-round draft pick. This makes the New England Patriots wide receiver core weaker for Tom Brady.
Cooks spent 1 year in New England which was last season. Cooks was a target Brady could trust. In the regular season, he had 1,082 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns. His yards per catch was an impressive 16.6 yards. According to ESPN, Cooks played in 92.7 percent of the offensive snaps in the regular season.
Every player wants to perform in the playoffs. Cooks wasn’t any different. He had 155 yards in 3 playoff games with an average yards per catch of 15.5. Those helped the New England Patriots make it all the way to the Super Bowl. He didn’t play much in the Super Bowl because of a concussion occurring in the second quarter. That could have made the difference on offense as the Patriots fell 41-33 to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Trading Cooks doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It takes another weapon away from Brady. Cooks is in his last year of his deal paying him $8.459 million.
Looking at the wide receiver core now that they have lost Cooks, Brady can still toss the ball to Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan. After that the receiving group is not experienced. Then again the Patriots don’t need a skilled wide receiver when they have Tom Brady at quarterback.
The Patriots seem to know what they are doing with this trade. At least they have draft picks to help improve this team. This is a large gamble and hopefully it works out for them.
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