(Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports)
The New England Patriots are taking the 2017 off-season as a chance to reload their roster for another Super Bowl run. Key moves already made are: Signing free agent CB Stephon Gilmore, trading for Panthers DL Kony Ealy, Re-signing DL Alan Branch, trading for Colts TE Dwayne Allen, and signing DL Lawrence Guy. However, no move was bigger than trading for Saints WR Brandin Cooks.
The Patriots and Saints have taken part in joint practices in each of the last two seasons during training camps. Meaning, Bill Belichick has had his fair share of looks at Brandin Cooks, and he knows exactly what kind of player he is.
Cooks (now 23 years of age) is fresh off his 3rd season in the NFL. Cooks finished the 2016-17 NFL season playing in all 16 regular season games and accumulating 78 receptions for 1,173 yards, and 8 touchdowns. If you’ve seen Cooks play, the first word that comes to mind is explosive. Arguably the biggest “play” WR in all of the NFL, Cooks uses his speed to tear down defenses. Cooks was tied for League leader in most receptions for 40 or more yards. His campaign included 98-yard and 87-yard touchdowns.
Cooks was thought to have one of the biggest years for WR’s last season so his 78 reception total was no doubt a disappointment. With the emergence of rookie WR Mike Thomas, and QB Drew Brees’ ability to spread the ball around multiple receivers, Cooks was frustrated. He made that clear following a week 12 blowout win against the Los Angeles Rams in which he failed to catch a pass. This was mainly because he didn’t have one thrown his way.
Cooks is 5’10” and weighs 185 LBS. His best skill is getting the ball in open space and basically sprinting as fast as he can away from defenders. Deep streak routes are where a lot of his big plays and numbers come from. When you have a QB like Drew Brees who can zip it all over the field, running streaks with a guy as fast as Cooks was deadly. This kind of game could translate well to New England. However, there is one problem. Patriots QB Tom Brady is not known for his deep ball, and quite frankly, he actually has a pretty poor deep ball. So how do the Patriots, Tom Brady, and Coach Belichick fit Cooks in their crowded offense?
Brandin Cooks lines up in the slot often, where instead of running short underneath routes over the middle and in the flats, he runs deep streaks from the slot. That spot is usually taken up by TE Rob Gronkowski for the Patriots. When Gronkowski went down to injury, it was filled by WR Chris Hogan. That makes 3 weapons now that run deep routes from the slot. One way Belichick could work Cooks in is letting Gronkowski be a blocker to keep him healthy and let Cooks take over deep routes in the slot. Using Cooks on the outside could prove to be valuable too. Letting him run his deep post routes or streaks would demand the safeties attention, and that could open up the middle for guys like Edelman and Gronkowski to beat 1 on 1 coverage.
Short Underneath routes have not been Cooks’ forte, but do not be surprised if Belichick makes Cooks into a short underneath route runner. WR Julian Edelman is now 30 years old, 31 by years start, and has taken a beating across the middle by linebackers and safeties for years now. In years past, Belichick has always liked to “train” a new underneath receiver while he still has another. He did it with Welker and Edelman, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Cooks eased into an underneath role this season.
Expect Cooks to run his fair share of deep routes from outside and from the slot, but also expect to see him making possession catches and becoming a chain moving receiver. Once again, Cooks is only 23 years old. Belichick may see the next great NFL slot receiver in him. It will undoubtedly be interesting to see how the Patriots use him this season. No one truly knows what Bill Belichick is thinking, but he of all people knows Tom Brady is a poor deep ball thrower. It would be unlikely that he gave up two draft picks to use Cooks exclusively for deep routes.
