The Patriots stunned the world on Tuesday afternoon with a decision to ship Brandin Cooks out of town, sending the wide receiver to the Rams for a first-round pick. The Pats also sent a fourth-round pick and received a sixth-round pick. It's yet another tough loss for Tom Brady in terms of seeing key offensive players leaving Foxborough, but according to at least one report, he's "not sad" about the departure.
Brady has watched Nate Solder sign for huge money in New York, Dion Lewis leave for Tennessee and Danny Amendola sign in Miami. Those are three big pieces, and Cooks led the team in targets and receiving yards last year. But Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported on Tuesday morning that the Pats quarterback is fine with the move.
One more note on Brandin Cooks: #Rams are getting an incredibly productive WR who Sean McVay has coveted. But #Patriots didn’t see him as a true No. 1 for them... and from what I understand, Tom Brady is not sad about this move. Despite his numbers, Cooks wasn’t a great fit.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 4, 2018
Cooks is a weird case: he's one of just four wide receivers to record three different seasons of at least 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns before the age of 25, joining Randy Moss, Odell Beckham and John Jefferson. Only one of these guys has been traded in back-to-back seasons.
As Ben Volin of the Boston Globe noted on Wednesday's Pick Six Podcast (listen below, subscribe to our daily, 30-minute show on iTunes here) Cooks' production does not necessarily match up with his statistics. He was wildly unproductive on third down last year (7-for-26), which might be part of the reason why Brady isn't devastated.
Cooks is like the mid-30's friend you have, who owns a doctorate, is pretty good looking and just can't lock down a long-term relationship. There's something underneath the surface that made both Sean Payton and Bill Belichick trade him after a productive run with the Saints and Patriots, respectively.
As Mike Reiss of ESPN noted, Cooks was "young, energetic, productive, durable and could fly," so it's not like he was missing a ton of qualities that teams want. The Rams have to be excited about this addition, particularly on an offense that won't revolve around Cooks as the No. 1 weapon.
Volin also noted that the Pats might not be done adding players -- they could look to the draft to add a wide receiver this year. (They almost certainly will be in the quarterback business during the draft, though that doesn't really affect the 2018 season outside of getting to hear Brady pretend like he doesn't mind again.)
They're going to be getting Julian Edelman back from injury, any Rob Gronkowski trade is off the table and the Patriots very much like Chris Hogan as a weapon in the passing game.
Ultimately those guys might just be a better fit for what the Patriots want to do, and the proposition of getting a first-round pick in return for Cooks just proved to be too much value for Belichick and New England to pass up.