Head Chef Over Cooks Meal

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Head Chef Over Cooks Meal Apr 4, 2018 15:19:29 GMT -5

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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:19:29 GMT -5

I don't want to jump on the "Kill Bill" bandwagon (if there is one) but the coach is in a slump. The fact that Sean Payton was willing to trade Cooks for a FRDP should have been a red flag to Bill but he thought he knew better and could get more out of Cooks with his coaching style and our Q-Back. Now he's traded Cooks after 1 season to get back the FRDP he gave up to get him. That follows the fiascoes with Garoppolo and Butler.

Patriots deal Brandin Cooks to Rams for first-round pick
Karen Guregian

Photo: Nancy Lane

The Brandin Cooks era is over after one season in New England.

The Patriots dealt the receiver to the Los Angeles Rams on Tuesday, a source said. The deal includes New England also sending a fourth-round pick in return for the 23rd overall selection in the first round and a sixth-round pick.

Cooks, 24, was acquired last spring from New Orleans for the 32nd overall pick in last year's draft. He caught 65 passes for 1,082 yards in his lone season with the Patriots, but was entering the final year of his contract.

Getting the 23rd overall pick in return for Cooks gives the Patriots a big arsenal of picks in this month's draft.

They now own two picks in the first and second rounds -- 23, 31, 43 and 63.

www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/the_blitz/2018/04/patriots_deal_brandin_cooks_to_rams_for_first_round_pick

Red: "Basketball is like war, in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up."

Admin
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Posts: 39,035

Head Chef Over Cooks Meal Apr 4, 2018 15:32:10 GMT -5

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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:32:10 GMT -5

Brandin Cooks trade gives Patriots great flexibility in NFL draft
Karen Guregian

Credit: John Wilcox

The Patriots got good value in trading wide receiver Brandin Cooks, netting a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft from the Los Angeles Rams. But they got something else just as important: the ability to be legitimate players during the first round of this year’s NFL draft.

In receiving the No. 23 pick overall from the Rams as part of the deal, along with a sixth-rounder (No. 198) in exchange for the receiver and a fourth-round selection (No. 136), they now have a better chance to select a decent left tackle to replace Nate Solder.

Or maybe they land Tom Brady’s eventual successor.

Or it’s also possible they stack the defense with a pair of playmaking studs (like Chandler Jones, Dont’a Hightower in 2012). All three scenarios are now in the equation thanks to this trade.

At pick No. 31, where the Pats already own a first-round selection, let’s just say it was tough imagining them getting that franchise tackle.

At 23rd overall, however, they have the draft capital for a shot at getting one of the better prospects at the position. Or, if not the tackle, perhaps they go after a quarterback they feel is the guy to eventually replace Brady. The guy who is supposed to make you forget Jimmy Garoppolo.

With this trade, they now have so many more options.

The Pats can package No. 23 and No. 31, and, according to most trade-value charts, move up even into the top-10 picks. So, this trade gets coach Bill Belichick into the ballgame on Day 1, which is a great place to be for The Hoodie. And it all makes sense.

Cooks was entering the final year of his contract. The cost for keeping top wideouts has really escalated. Just to get an idea, Sammy Watkins signed a three-year deal with the Chiefs worth $48 million, with $30 million guaranteed. Allen Robinson signed a three-year deal for $42 million, including $25 million guaranteed, with the Bears.

Cooks did have 65 catches for 1,082 yards, but it still didn’t seem like he and Brady were comfortable together. Their chemistry appeared to get better toward the season’s end, and probably would have improved with more time.

But it’s hard to think he would have been re-signed at the going rate for 1,000-yard receivers.

Now Brady will be without Danny Amendola and Cooks. Julian Edelman will be back, albeit coming off ACL surgery. Malcolm Mitchell also seems to be on the path back. Also in house are Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett, Kenny Britt, Riley McCarron and Cody Hollister.

Do they really need the deep threat? Given the loss of Solder, and the trade of Garoppolo, and the lack of play makers on defense, they needed the additional first-round pick more than Cooks’ speed. That’s why this trade is a good one.

It gives Belichick and director of player personnel Nick Caserio options to fill their remaining needs.

It also makes the draft so much more interesting given how they might maneuver the board. They can also play with two second-round picks (No. 43 and No. 63) in their possession.

The past two years, the Pats didn’t make a first-round pick. Now they have two.

It’s so much more fun especially this way with all the possibilities Belichick has in front of him.

The franchise left tackle to replace Solder? The quarterback in-waiting to succeed Brady? Help to bolster a defense that cracked in Super Bowl LII?

Can’t wait to see what Belichick has up his sleeve.

www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/2018/04/guregian_brandin_cooks_trade_gives_patriots_great_flexibility_in_nfl_draft

Red: "Basketball is like war, in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up."

Admin
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Posts: 39,035

Head Chef Over Cooks Meal Apr 4, 2018 15:53:21 GMT -5

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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:53:21 GMT -5

Now comes this ... Bill tried to extend Cooks before trading him but as usual, the frugal Belichick would not pay the market price for a top tier receiver ... Bill has never valued tall, fast, top round receivers. He prefers to pick from the bottom of the barrel and rely on Brady to get the ball in the receiver's hands. No help for the weary & "aging" QB.

Patriots reportedly tried to extend Brandin Cooks before talks broke off and he was traded to the Rams
New England wanted to bring the wideout back but the two sides couldn't reach a common ground.
By Bernd Buchmasser

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

When the New England Patriots traded wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Los Angeles Rams yesterday, one question was definitively answered: Will the team pay the impending free agent the big bucks? The answer, as the trade shows, is “no”. With the Patriots shipping Cooks away, the team will not keep him around on what would have likely been a multi-million dollar long-term contract.

That does not mean that the team did not want to extend the wide receiver, though. Coming off a very productive year which saw Cooks catch a total of 75 passes for a combined 1,237 yards and seven touchdowns, the Patriots were reportedly trying to sign him to a new deal but as ESPN insider /LINK> Adam Schefter noted on WEEI's Kirk & Callahan <LINK/ show, talks went nowhere.

“New England had attempted to re-sign him during the offseason,” Schefter said before continuing that both sides reached a financial breaking point: “They got to a certain number and that number wasn’t going to get it done. Once it wasn’t going to get it done, New England wasn’t going to go higher and they recognized, 'OK, we have a guy here that we’re stuck with'.”

“You saw some of these wide receiver deals come in,” Schefter continued about the economics of a potential extension. “Mike Evans came in north of $16 million. Sammy Watkins came in at about $16 million. Allen Robinson came in north of $15 million. When you get these deals, you see the market for top wide receivers. It’s $14.5-15 million a year, north of there. I don’t believe the Patriots’ intent was to go that high for Brandin Cooks.”

Cooks was entering the 2018 offseason on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal – a contract that pays him a fully guaranteed salary of $8.459 million. An extension would have likely lowered this number and his cap hit but apparently what the Patriots had in mind was nowhere close to what Cooks was looking for. The difference, according to Schefter, might have been at least $2 million per season without even putting into account any guarantees or structural elements.

“I think they would have liked to have brought him back at a certain price, in their own minds, whatever that was,” Schefter noted. “My guess would be somewhere in the $12 million range, right around there. Obviously, Brandin Cooks looked out there, saw all these other wide receivers getting the money and wasn’t going to commit what New England was offering.”

The Patriots and Rams, who themselves entertained the idea of trading for the former first-round pick last offseason, started negotiating as a result of a breakdown between New England's front office and Cooks' camp. “The Rams have been talking to the Patriots for over a month now,” reported Schefter. “They went back to the Patriots and on Monday, Sean McVay, the Rams head coach, and Bill Belichick were working at the same coaching clinic in Georgia.”

Schefter continued to give an insight into how the trade became a reality – in the process showing just how important director of player personnel Nick Caserio is to the Patriots' front office operation: “The dialogue that had been going on between Les Snead and Nick Caserio was continued by McVay and Belichick. They basically were able, I think, to put into place a framework for a deal.”

The NFL insider also pointed out that the Patriots were also talking to “a couple of other teams”, with Schefter believing that the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears might have been involved in talks. Ultimately, though, New England traded Cooks to a Rams team that is in the middle of an aggressive offseason. The Patriots, meanwhile, are conducting their business as usual and tried to maximize Cooks' value once it became clear that he would not be retained beyond this season.

www.patspulpit.com/2018/4/4/17196900/new-england-patriots-report-contract-extension-brandin-cooks-trade-los-angeles-rams-bill-belichick

Red: "Basketball is like war, in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up."

BostonHomeCourt

Head Chef Over Cooks Meal

Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:19:29 GMT -5

Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:32:10 GMT -5

Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2018 15:53:21 GMT -5

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