Cooks traded to Rams for 23 overall pick

[scott99]

Goedert and 12 special teamers

Well, I’m a huge Goedert fan, and special teams wins championships

All joking aside, though I want mostly defense, with 5 picks in the top 100, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Belichick draft a receiver with one of those picks (Dasean Hamilton Penn State might be a Pat’s target), a TE, and a QB.

My favorite receiver is Courtland Sutton of SMU, and TE wise I like Goedert and Gesecki. QB wise, if we wind up with any of the top 6 QBs I’d be happy.

 

[50-yard-line]

So out of all those names the only one that I think would have made a difference in the game we played would have been Hightower. That’s it.
My emphasis on defense is important, when Hightower goes down there is a huge drop off, literally I feel there is no leadership in there.
Let’s not forget Hightower has been injury prone and has missed his fair share of games the last few years.
Take Hightower away and put all the other guys that you mentioned, they would not have made a difference.
If we had studs we would have gotten to Foles, if we would have generated enough pressure at the start of the game we could have gotten to Foles head, and you know how he deals with when there is pressure on his face.

Brady can get us the points, but if our defensive line can’t generate enough pressure not even the best secondary in the world can save you.

Minnesota had a defense full of studs - Philly steamrolled them. Sometimes a team gets hot, you know?

Philly had studs all over their defensive line and barely touched Brady.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Haven't seen much "retooling". That implies they've added quality pieces to replace guys who are gone

They're much worse at WR. Worse at RB. Much worse at LT. The offense is relying upon injury plagued or old players and young/mid career busts to develop.

The D is marginally better but not in the places where it was exposed last year (LB and interior rush). Like the offense, it's relying on injured guys getting/staying healthy.

It's still a very good roster but definitely worse at key positions and the chances of Edelman, Gronkowski and Hightower being healthy and as good as needed seems slim to me.

I get why they moved Cooks. He's not worth his expected 2019 salary and it's a good return. But this team has taken several steps back in talent and draft picks are unlikely to fill those gaps.

Still plenty of time to build the roster but the team is definitely worse on paper than it was last year.

Last I checked, it was still the offseason with the draft on he horizon and several good FA's still available.

 

[50-yard-line]

I liked the Cooks trade last year.

If this trade was reversed and we got Cooks for our #23 pick for a one-year rental at 8.5m, I'd hate it.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

Well, I’m a huge Goedert fan, and special teams wins championships

All joking aside, though I want mostly defense, with 5 picks in the top 100, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Belichick draft a receiver with one of those picks (Dasean Hamilton Penn State might be a Pat’s target), a TE, and a QB.

My favorite receiver is Courtland Sutton of SMU, and TE wise I like Goedert and Gesecki. QB wise, if we wind up with any of the top 6 QBs I’d be happy.

Man I would love to get Sutton at 31 but he may not make it that far

 

[skinnydog]

With all that vodka his BAC is as well

If BB wasn't so uptight he could've been the Dude

 

[maust]

If this trade was reversed and we got Cooks for our #23 pick for a one-year rental at 8.5m, I'd hate it.

Almost as much as we'd hate it if the Pats had qualified for the 23rd pick

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Good bye mighty Mr. Cooks. Your Cat like speed will be missed.

 

[mcmurtry86]

Last I checked, it was still the offseason with the draft on he horizon and several good FA's still available.

Chances that either the draft or FA produces a quality starting LT or #1/2 WR are slim to none. Bargain basement free agents and rookies who likely won't contribute much for a year or two (if ever) are the likely only additions coming

There's time to improve the roster. But right now they're clearly worse at very important positions.

 

[50-yard-line]

Chances that either the draft or FA produces a quality starting LT or #1/2 WR are slim to none. Bargain basement free agents and rookies who likely won't contribute much for a year or two (if ever) are the likely only additions coming

There's time to improve the roster. But right now they're clearly worse at very important positions.

Worse than the team at this point last year, or worse than the team that went to the Superbowl?

 

[Kdo5]

Nvm

 

[denverpatsfan]

Helped us lose the super bowl in the first half. Good riddance. Great trade.

 

[fnordcircle]

Last I checked, it was still the offseason with the draft on he horizon and several good FA's still available.

Remember last year when we won the offseason Super Bowl? Like in 2007? Sure worked out great!

 

[fnordcircle]

Helped us lose the super bowl in the first half. Good riddance. Great trade.

This is the dumbest thing I see parroted about all the time. It's like you guys think this player who never missed a practice was like '**** it I'ma use the right side of my face to stop this guy.'

 

[DaBruinz]

I can't possibly see Patterson as writing on the wall for Cooks. I would be surprised if he got more snaps at WR in 2018 than Matthew Slater does in a typical year. His ability to pick up even simple NFL offenses has been in question. How's he going to handle this one?

I also don't see anything that Dorsett did that could cause them to trade Cooks. Dorsett is what he is at this point, a decent complimentary piece but not consistent enough to "replace" Cooks. He does offer the team enough though to stretch the field (combined with Hogan), to make them respect the deep ball and not flood the short and intermediate zones.

I think the trade is really simply about this: Belichick knows he won a SB with Edelman, Hogan, Amendola and Mitchell as his main WRs who covered all parts of the field decently enough. Cooks was a nice extra upgrade when he was cheap. But he didn't offer enough to warrant keeping around when he wasn't cheap. Dola is gone, but I think BB feels that he has a WR crew that compares reasonably well with 2014's and 2016's, and that he will get more marginal improvements on the team with the 23 pick and whoever they spend the 8 million on.

I said Patterson and Dorsett. Clearly you aren't looking at big picture if you are looking just at WR snaps. Patterson brings Kick Return ability. Extremely good Kick Return Ability. Furthermore, he also handles running the ball fairly well for a WR. So the idea that he won't see more snaps than Slater does is just silly. Slater is lucky to see 1 offensive snap a game. Patterson will probably seen 8-12 as the teams #4WR and KR..

Just because you weren't paying attention to Dorsett doesn't mean he didn't do good things. He was an excellent blocker (much better than Cooks) on running plays and he did get open fairly routinely despite Brady not throwing him the ball.

One of Brady's issues last year was he didn't got to the player who was open. Many people commented on this and people commented on it during the SB when White was open at least twice and Brady didn't throw to him.

 

[Joey007]

Nvm

What what what

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I've had a couple of hours to let this move percolate in my brain, and I'm still not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, Cooks was consistently able to threaten the middle-deep, and was able to impact games from the OWR spot in a way we haven't seen since Moss. On the other hand, his route tree was limited, as he really didn't function well over the middle, and he never developed any ability to shed the DBs at the chuck.

I think this is the sort of trade where a wait and see approach is probably the way to go.

Agreed wait and see. It seems like Dorsett can learn most of the limited route tree that Cooks ran and add some toughness, all at a lot less $$s? If true, that is the value option which is usually the best choice with the salary cap.

 

[Kdo5]

They still have
Edelman
Hogan
Mitchell
Britt
Patterson
Dorset

Not exactly a weakness.

Not a weakness if you look at it plainly. But there are only two guys on that list that make you say, "yeah they'll be impactful" and they are Edelman and Hogan.

Edelman is returning from a torn ACL, and Hogan has missed chunks of time in both of his seasons here. I hope both of these guys can make it through a full season along with Gronk but we need more insurance than that.

Mitchell is the x-factor there. If he can return to form after missing his sophomore season then that depth chart looks OK. If not, we are in trouble should Edelman or Hogan miss significant time.

The other three you cannot rely on to make a real impact in the receiving game.

A proven vet (no need to be a star) would make me feel a hell of a lot better at that position. Insurance for the other three.

 

[Kdo5]

What what what

I posted below instead since i cant delete.

 

[DaBruinz]

I don't think I'm overrating Edelman. I have two kids who are college athletes who have torn ACLs and were back at full strength within the year. Edelman is an elite athlete with world-class medical care and physical therapy. Welker tore his at the end of one season and was solid the next year. Edelman will have had a full year to recover. He should be very close to 100%.

I underrate Patterson because there's a reason why two other teams have let him go. He's just never been a great receiver is all. I really HOPE he turns the corner and becomes something solid at WR, but right now, all I see is a special teams guy.

To primetime's point - yes Britt didn't get much PT for NE last year. They added him in mid-December, for crying out loud. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, on crummy teams, he put up these numbers:

2014: 48 rec, 748 yds, 15.6 ypc, 3 td
2015: 36 rec, 681 yds, 18.9 ypc, 3 td
2016: 68 rec, 1002 yds, 14.7 ypc, 5 td

So we know he can play. That's not in question. Patterson, for all his speed, has never had a ypc of more than 11.6, which is hard to believe.

YPC has as much to do with the Routes he was being asked to run as it does with anything else.