According to a source, the Patriots dealt speedy wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Los Angeles Rams on Tuesday for a 2018 first-round pick (23rd overall). In the deal, the Patriots also sent a fourth-round pick to the Rams and receive a sixth-round selection. ESPN was the first to report the trade.
Turns out that Brandin Cooks was just passing through New England.
The wide receiver is one and done with the Patriots, packaged with a fourth-round pick in this month’s NFL draft and shipped off to the Los Angeles Rams on Tuesday in exchange for first- and sixth-round choices.
Acquired by the Patriots (along with a 2017 fourth-round draft choice) in March of last year from the New Orleans Saints in exchange for first- and third-round picks in the 2017 draft, Cooks turned out to be a rental in New England.
While he finished second on the team to tight end Rob Gronkowski in receptions (with 65), receiving yards (1,082 yards) and touchdown receptions (seven), Cooks proved to be inconsistent at times.
Ultimately, though, it would seem the Patriots came to the decision that they weren’t about to pay what Cooks, who was in the final year of the rookie contract he signed as a first-round pick of the Saints out of Oregon State in 2014, would have commanded on the open market next year.
Cooks is due to pull in $8.5 million on the fifth year of that deal this season.
From a big-picture standpoint, the trade would seem to be a clear indication that the Patriots have some sort of assurance that Gronkowski, whose future has been cloaked in mystery this offseason, will return to play in 2018. With wide receiver Danny Amendola already gone, signed as an unrestricted free agent to a two-year, $12 million deal by Miami, the team wouldn’t be apt to part with another of quarterback Tom Brady’s weapons if it believed its five-time Pro Bowler wasn’t coming back.
The trade leaves the Patriots with four picks in the first two rounds of the April 26-28 draft, two each in the first (the Rams at No. 23 and their own at 31) and second round (No. 43 from San Francisco in exchange for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and their own at 63).
Given that draft capital, the team now has the means to move up further in the first round, if it so chooses, to make a potential splash at a position of need – perhaps linebacker, offensive left tackle or maybe even for a young quarterback to put in the mix with the 40-year-old Brady and his 32-year-old backup Bryan Hoyer.
While the top of the depth chart takes a hit with Cooks’ departure, it still has Julian Edelman (who missed all of last season with a knee injury), Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell (who also missed all of last season with a knee injury), Phillip Dorsett, Kenny Britt, offseason pickup Cordarrelle Patterson and 2017 practice squad members Cody Hollister and Riley McCarron.