Rams putting too much pressure on that young coach... They better win or the roster will be gutted after this season...
Pretty insane that the Rams are going for it this hard. Mortgaging the future when they could very easily have an injury plagued season like the Texans. It always seems that it never works out for teams that make a ton of high profile moves
This is the kind of Belichick move that goes unnoticed and why the Patriots dynasty continues. Cooks was acquired last offseason from the Saints for the Patriots' 1st round pick #32. Now, they've flipped him for the #23 pick in this year's draft -- that's tremendous value for getting a great one-year rental and still moving up draft position while not having to pay Cooks the longterm money he was seeking. As far as the Patriots offense is concerned, they'll be absolutely fine. Edelman is coming back healthy, Gronk will settle down by training camp, and Brady can still make superstar receivers out of guys off the street like Hogan and Hollister. Plus, they have speedster Phillip Dorsett in the wings and also acquired Cordarrelle Patterson in the offseason, so Cooks won't be missed. Belichick has one goal in mind this offseason: to fix his defense. That was the Patriots' achilles heel in the Super Bowl. Patriots had no pass rush. So they've acquired Danny Shelton, Adrian Clayborn, and Jason McCourty to bolster the defense. Also their best linebacker and pass rusher Dont'a Hightower was injured last season and will be back healthy again. Here's the really Belichick genius: he knows the draft will be a run on QBs at the top of the order, so Belichick will sit there quietly waiting for a stud to fall and that's where he'll strike by trading both first round picks #23 and #31 to move up and snatch him. Belichick did the same thing with Jerod Mayo back in the day. According to the draft trade value chart, the #23 and #31 picks yield 760 and 590 points respectively for a total of 1350, which is the equivalent of the #9 pick. So, that's where Belichick is targeting in the draft. Patriots could go with either a defensive stud or a left tackle to replace Nate Solder whom the lost to free agency. Nonetheless, another excellent move by The Hoodie.
I know there's a lot of talk about the Patriot defense's failures in the Superbowl, but from Week 5 of the season until the Superbowl, they were one of the 2 or 3 best defenses in football. Philly's offense destroyed Minnesota also (the other best-defense-in-football) so it's hard to really make any judgment from that one performance.
The Patriot way is well known at this point. They scheme to take away the opposing offense's best weapon and make you beat them with your secondary options. I don't think Cooks ever lived up to what Brady wanted as a deep threat. They seemed to be slightly out of sync most of the season. I think Cooks is a slight upgrade over Sammy Watkins for the Rams. He will probably be used in that role exclusively, which downgrades him for fantasy purposes. Robert Woods is the possession receiver and Cooper Kupp is a nice slot target.
I despise the Patriots and don't feel very confident in terms of Belichick's integrity or character, but this was a good read. He's very very savvy to say the least.