The New England Patriots are out here pouring kerosene on the offseason hot stove.
They made headlines this week when they traded wide receiver Brandin Cooks and a fourth round draft pick to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for a first round draft pick (23rd overall) and a sixth round pick.
The Patriots were trying to extend Cooks this offseason, but, you know, the Patriots don’t like to spend a lot of money. So instead, they decided to get as much as they could out of the wideout. They didn’t exactly sell him ridiculously high, but they got good use out of him and that’s important.
The deal helps out both sides, if you think about it. I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t strike me as the kind of deal where one side fleeced the other or anything like that.
The Rams needed a deep threat--and Cooks certainly fits the criteria. The guy had over 1,000 receiving yards last season and has a better attitude than another potential trade target, Odell Beckham Jr., so you could understand why they’d want him.
And the Patriots already have a few good targets like Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski and Chris Hogan. They’re not exactly desperate for options there. What they could really use though is some talent in the secondary, a left tackle or a potential Tom Brady successor. That’s something that a first round pick can help them with and heck, even the sixth round pick could help in that department. TB12 was a sixth rounder, after all. Not saying it will happen, but it’s not impossible.
So yeah, it’s not a trade you’d call a great trade because the Patriots gave up a great player and got the kind of return you might expect. So let’s just call it a trade. This is what trades are supposed to be: two teams getting better.