OT: Cooks signs 5-year extension with Rams

[HailHydra]

Well, one thing I think this drives home is that Gronk is absolutely right to be upset (if he even is). On the other hand, he did sign an 8 year deal...no one who has seen the salary cap explode over the course of a decade should agree to such a long deal unless they expect to underperform or get injured in a permanent way.

Can anyone explain just why he did sign an 8 year deal back then? Actually curious- didn't follow NFL as much then

 

[TheRainMaker]

Rams are all in, but they implode if Goff can't duplicate last years success. Teams will try to take away who he likes to go to and make him scan the field. After watching quite a few of their games last year, he stares down his receivers and throws immediately where the play is supposed to go.

Cooks is a very good WR and may fit in well with the Rams, but he wasn't a good fit in NE. I was hoping he'd be a "poor man's" Antonio Brown but he isn't the greatest route runner and plays small.

He's over payed.

 

[maust]

Can anyone explain just why he did sign an 8 year deal back then? Actually curious- didn't follow NFL as much then

Gronkowski did not sign an 8 year deal, he signed a 6 year extension/restructure 2 years into his rookie deal. Understanding why involves abandoning hindsight and looking at it in the context of it's time. Gronk's college injury history was what made him drop to the 2nd round in 2010. After playing all 16 games in his first 2 seasons at the pro level including a 2011 season that saw a slash line of 90/1327/17 he was in line for a payday. Both sides were still mindful of his injury history though and he was in fact in need of a back procedure at the time. Gronk elected to take the security of a max length extension and the team was satisfied with the risk of initial guarantees that only totaled around $13m and a series of rolling 'guarantees' that kicked in by date. Keep in mind an AAV of @ $9m was serious money, particularly at TE, at the time and even put the Welker camp's nose out of joint a bit. He also only played 17 total games in the first 2 seasons after signing the deal and there were some rumblings after those 2 seasons the Pats had over committed.

Of course no one outside N.E. wants to look back at it realistically now, it's just another example of the Pats being cheap.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

Anyone know how much of this is guaranteed? Rams have a window and this is a decent signing for them, but extremely aggressive. He is not, in my opinion, a number 1 WR.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

It always perplexes me when posters talk about the Lloyd season like it's an old shame and pretend he gave an Ochocinco-like performance. In reality, he gave us some of the best production from the WR2 role we've seen this decade.

Lloyd just seemed to make every catch look difficult, which was frustrating to watch. Of course his production was good, but so was Reche Caldwells’.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Anyone know how much of this is guaranteed? Rams have a window and this is a decent signing for them, but extremely aggressive. He is not, in my opinion, a number 1 WR.

$20M is fully guaranteed. He has incentives to raise it to $50M. That’s way above what the best WR’s in the in game are making.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

The other two key ingredients you forgot that won us the game was our defense saving a sputtering offense and Amendola being clutch.

Cooks had a good game but it kinda was perfectly reflective of what the issue with him was. He has elite straight line speed but that is pretty much it. He was never elusive nor quick and essentially could only be used on the boundry. Which was the perfect fit to keep the Jags CBs engaged but it also explains why he got no TDs or not more than 155 yards in total last postseason. For the most part he was a chess piece to stretch opponents but that skillset is simply not worth the money he is getting now in a McDaniels offense.

Whenever the team tried to give him the ball in the middle of the field he became like a deer in headlights. Just look at his two most infamous plays from the SB. He is just not comfortable in traffic which is just not a good match for a player here in Foxboro.

Yeah I agree he wasn’t as versatile as I thought he would be

 

[jah]

Can anyone explain just why he did sign an 8 year deal back then? Actually curious- didn't follow NFL as much then

Bad agent? Being super young? I dunno. Good question.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Of course they are big catch rate has to do with a lot more than drops.

Dorsett mostly got deep low percentage targets in Indy. Here he got more short high percentage throws.
We consistently see that QBs complete something like 80% of short throws, 60% of intermediate and about 25% of deep throws.

To say catch rate is comparable without looking at those throws is ignorant. (Same with completion percentage but the larger sample size and the fact 1 qb makes all the throws and receives run different routes makes that less variable.)

A receiver getting 50 targets within 3 yards of the Los, 10 intermediate and 2 deep compared to a receiver that gets 15 short, 25 intermediate and 23 deep is comparing apples to oranges with catch rate.

Agree but the sample size for Dorsett here is too small to say he is a reliable target

 

[RobertWeathers]

Yup, I sure did. # 47 in the thread.

I don't read every single post.

 

[luuked]

Yeah I agree he wasn’t as versatile as I thought he would be

You and me both. I honestly thought we would be able to use him like the Steelers do with Antonio Brown. And it seemed like Josh was toying with giving him some crossing routes or WR screens before the BYE where unfortunately most failed miserably.

Too bad because with a little bit more versatility he would have been such a great fit. He had the absolute right attitude to succeed here.

 

[varjao]

He's a talented receiver but, in this offense, you need to be able to run more than 2 routes.

He didn't need to run more than 2 or 3 routes in this offense if Edelman and Mitchell were healthy. With 2 big pieces from the SB from the previous year down before week 1, he needed to do a little extra. He is a speedster with good technique but not much versatility and that for BB is a big no.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

Rams are all in, but they implode if Goff can't duplicate last years success. Teams will try to take away who he likes to go to and make him scan the field. After watching quite a few of their games last year, he stares down his receivers and throws immediately where the play is supposed to go.

Cooks is a very good WR and may fit in well with the Rams, but he wasn't a good fit in NE. I was hoping he'd be a "poor man's" Antonio Brown but he isn't the greatest route runner and plays small.

He's over payed.

How can you say he wasn’t a good fit in New England? That’s ridiculous to say after just 1 year. The guy was making plays in the playoffs before he got hurt. I was thinking he was gonna have a ridiculous second year had he stayed. He was building chemistry with Brady.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

He didn't need to run more than 2 or 3 routes in this offense if Edelman and Mitchell were healthy. With 2 big pieces from the SB from the previous year down before week 1, he needed to do a little extra. He is a speedster with good technique but not much versatility and that for BB is a big no.

Everyone here has their hopes up on Mitchell. I like malcolm but he has a lot of question marks this coming season.

 

[TheRainMaker]

How can you say he wasn’t a good fit in New England? That’s ridiculous to say after just 1 year. The guy was making plays in the playoffs before he got hurt. I was thinking he was gonna have a ridiculous second year had he stayed. He was building chemistry with Brady.

I thought he was used wrong. At times, they thought he was Randy Moss.

He didn’t look comfortable all year long despite him catching for 1,000 yards.

If the Pats felt the same way you did, why trade him?

 

[chasa]

If the Pats felt the same way you did, why trade him?

i can give you 16 million reasons.

 

[TheRainMaker]

i can give you 16 million reasons.

I agree he’s not worth the money.

 

[luuked]

How can you say he wasn’t a good fit in New England? That’s ridiculous to say after just 1 year. The guy was making plays in the playoffs before he got hurt. I was thinking he was gonna have a ridiculous second year had he stayed. He was building chemistry with Brady.

What plays exactly was he making "in the playoffs" ?

He had one good game in a span of 3 (or rather 2.5). He was invisible against the Titans and then cost us an easy third down conversion in the SB before knocking himself out of the game with yet another stupid decision.

And even with that one good game against the Jaguars he did not score once and only had about 160 total yards. That might all be fine if you are on your rookie deal but not on his fifth year option or even moreso his market rate.

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

What plays exactly was he making "in the playoffs" ?

He had one good game in a span of 3 (or rather 2.5). He was invisible against the Titans and then cost us an easy third down conversion in the SB before knocking himself out of the game with yet another stupid decision.

And even with that one good game against the Jaguars he did not score once and only had about 160 total yards. That might all be fine if you are on your rookie deal but not on his fifth year option or even moreso his market rate.

Without him in the jaguars game we likely lose that game. Our other wrs would be locked on. It’s always good to keep other teams on their toes by having an explosive wr. You make it out to be like he wasn’t an important part of the offense. Guy was starting to click

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

Well Dorsett has had ampled time to learn the playbook. He needs to show some consistency