Rams trade for Brandon Cooks

[sdog1981]

Hope he can make Goff go from dud to stud in LA.Good luck!

Wow....
A Pro Bowl QB is a dud... ??
You do know Goff played in the Pro Bowl last year, ya?

Goff is not a dud IMO, but his stats were largely a product of McVay's offense. Lots of easy throws and screens. He did flash some beast talent though. Up to him and his coaches to continue to develop. Also that OL was damn good in all facets last year.

A year of film for teams to work with. The read option was not as devastating in 2013 as it was in 2012. So lets see his adjustment to the adjustment.

 

[getnasty]

Hope he can make Goff go from dud to stud in LA.Good luck!

Wow....
A Pro Bowl QB is a dud... ??
You do know Goff played in the Pro Bowl last year, ya?

David Garraurd and Andy Dalton played in the Pro Bowl too.

 

[RedAlice]

That's a bad deal for the Rams.

It might actually be the most brilliant of all off season moves.

Let’s revisit post season.

 

[sdog1981]

Hope he can make Goff go from dud to stud in LA.Good luck!

Wow....
A Pro Bowl QB is a dud... ??
You do know Goff played in the Pro Bowl last year, ya?

David Garraurd and Andy Dalton played in the Pro Bowl too.

Sick burn

 

[original poster]

Hope he can make Goff go from dud to stud in LA.Good luck!

Wow....
A Pro Bowl QB is a dud... ??
You do know Goff played in the Pro Bowl last year, ya?

David Garraurd and Andy Dalton played in the Pro Bowl too.

lol

 

[Beren]

Cooks now has them over a barrel for number one receiver money. I'm not so sure he is a number one receiver.

They've fashioned themselves a one-year window with a mediocre QB and a great D-Line. Their DBs have great name value but I'm not sold personally. Some okay receiving options, but nothing spectacular in my opinion.

Their coaching is pretty awesome though and for that reason I think they could make a good run at the Superbowl.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

The Rams worship and/or Crowning is hilarious. This team hasn't won a playoff game since 2004, but yeah, let's just assume they will win it all :?

 

[Ramfan128]

The Rams technically have $100m. But, that is before many players are paid.

Exactly, which is why the claim that this is a one-year shot and the team is going to have to be blown up because of it is so wrong.

Last year the Seahawks brought in rentals to try to supplement around their stars who were all on the back end of their second contracts. They pushed right up against the cap and didn't have cap room moving forward, so no matter what happened, they were a year or two off from having to blow things up, and they chose to do so this year instead of next.


The Rams on the other hand, are bringing in more pieces to supplement their stars who are still on their first contracts, and they've got nothing but cap room moving forward.

I guess one could complain that they're mortgaging the future with this by giving away draft picks, but I think that's wrong for two reasons:

1) Like other smart teams who are on the cutting edge of how to play this (Eagles, and Pats) the Rams have realized that we're well past the flat cap era in which draft picks were gold, and now that the cap is jumping every year draft picks have become overvalued and mid- and late-career talent is now undervalued. With the cap going up by 10 million a year you can basically bring in vet reinforcements and keep your team together as much as you want to.

2) Because they're trading for players they still have two third round comp picks coming back to them next year (they'll have four picks in the first three rounds next year), and it's not like they're without any draft picks this year either (they're sitting out day one, but they still have a 3rd, three 4ths, and four 6ths -- that's eight depth and develop guys coming in behind the stars they've landed).

This guy gets it.

I'm still a little lukewarm on this trade - I assumed we would trade our first rounder, but after losing this years 2nd for a WR we didn't re-sign and now trading for a WR with only one year left...

I'll be stoked if we re-sign Cooks, Donald and Joyner before the season. We're over the cap right now, and the plan is to create room by extending them - hopefully it happens.

Interestingly enough, we had a great draft last year and didn't have a first round pick (traded back). I think we'll focus on LB early and maybe even trade up into the late 2nd round.

 

[Ramfan128]

Another interesting thing about this is that we didn't bring Watkins in until after training camp.

Cooks will have all offseason with the Rams, AND we actually tried to trade for him last year, so he's a guy that McVay covets

 

[bigskydoc]

Rams will look good right up until the point they have to pay Goff, and they look to be setting themselves up fairly nicely for that too.

TBH, I wasn't that sold on Goff when he was coming out of college. It will be interesting to see what happens when his rookie contract is up.

I will be really interested to see what happens to the first team that decides to trade, or let walk, their franchise QB after his rookie deal is up. Is it possible that the right coaches can set up a system where an adequate QB, surrounded by an all-star cast, can make a run? It wouldn't surprise me to see the Rams give it a shot, maybe even the Eagles when you consider how their season went after their franchise guy went down.

Crippling a team, to pay a QB who is merely good, doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.

 

[Ramfan128]

Rams will look good right up until the point they have to pay Goff, and they look to be setting themselves up fairly nicely for that too.

TBH, I wasn't that sold on Goff when he was coming out of college. It will be interesting to see what happens when his rookie contract is up.

I will be really interested to see what happens to the first team that decides to trade, or let walk, their franchise QB after his rookie deal is up. Is it possible that the right coaches can set up a system where an adequate QB, surrounded by an all-star cast, can make a run? It wouldn't surprise me to see the Rams give it a shot, maybe even the Eagles when you consider how their season went after their franchise guy went down.

Crippling a team, to pay a QB who is merely good, doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.

I agree, and I too have been waiting for this to happen.

I honestly thought the Seahawks should have done it, although in hindsight it's good that they didn't with the decline of Sherman and Chancellor.

If it came down to keeping this entire team together minus Goff, that would be very, very tempting.

 

[adeltaY]

Thing is, IMO, eventually the QB is gonna have to step up and make a play only a great QB can make. Maybe the team is having an off day, the opposing team is playing possessed or has a great gameplan, or a string of unlucky plays occurs. At that point, it's up to a great QB to carry the team. A receiver, RB, defensive player, etc. will have a harder time doing this. In the playoffs this happens often IMO. This year's Eagles are an exception IMO. Their gameplan was excellent and the whole team executed it to perfection in the NFC championship and SB. Foles made some great plays, but he wasn't under duress. I wouldn't gamble on that happening for every game in a playoff run if I was running a team. That's why a Wilson, Rodgers, Brady, Brees type QB is so valuable. They can save the team.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

Rams will look good right up until the point they have to pay Goff, and they look to be setting themselves up fairly nicely for that too.

TBH, I wasn't that sold on Goff when he was coming out of college. It will be interesting to see what happens when his rookie contract is up.

I will be really interested to see what happens to the first team that decides to trade, or let walk, their franchise QB after his rookie deal is up. Is it possible that the right coaches can set up a system where an adequate QB, surrounded by an all-star cast, can make a run? It wouldn't surprise me to see the Rams give it a shot, maybe even the Eagles when you consider how their season went after their franchise guy went down.

Crippling a team, to pay a QB who is merely good, doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.

I agree, and I too have been waiting for this to happen.

I honestly thought the Seahawks should have done it, although in hindsight it's good that they didn't with the decline of Sherman and Chancellor.

If it came down to keeping this entire team together minus Goff, that would be very, very tempting.

Tempting? I wouldn't even hesitate. If all of the potential malcontents on defense keep their heads on straight, with that running game. I would trade that franchise qb for draft picks without thinking twice.

 

[Popeyejones]

I'm still a little lukewarm on this trade - I assumed we would trade our first rounder, but after losing this years 2nd for a WR we didn't re-sign and now trading for a WR with only one year left...

Supposedly the story is they wanted Cooks last year but didn't have a first so couldn't outbid the Patriots for him, and Watkins was just the fallback plan.

TBF though, while I trust that McVay really badly wanted Cooks, I'm not entirely sure why, and this is the first move the Rams have made this offseason that I'm not really that into (I'm not that moved by the concern trolling over letting Ogletree go---teams move on from popular locker rooms guys who are getting overpaid all the time).

I think my two issues with this move are:

(1) I think Cooks is only marginally better than guys who don't require draft capital and only command half his salary.

(2) There's a few OCs in the league -- McDaniels, Payton, Shanahan, McVay, and maybe the younger Gruden -- who can regularly make Tier 2-3 receivers look like Tier 1 receivers and Tier 4-7 receivers look like Tier 2-3 receivers.

That's a short list of OCs who can do that, and so far half of them have had Cooks and shipped him off for other pieces. That's not a good sign.

 

[Popeyejones]

Rams will look good right up until the point they have to pay Goff, and they look to be setting themselves up fairly nicely for that too.

TBH, I wasn't that sold on Goff when he was coming out of college. It will be interesting to see what happens when his rookie contract is up.

I will be really interested to see what happens to the first team that decides to trade, or let walk, their franchise QB after his rookie deal is up. Is it possible that the right coaches can set up a system where an adequate QB, surrounded by an all-star cast, can make a run? It wouldn't surprise me to see the Rams give it a shot, maybe even the Eagles when you consider how their season went after their franchise guy went down.

Crippling a team, to pay a QB who is merely good, doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.

Great post.

IMO Goff was so awful in Year 1 and so pretty good in Year 2 that I think a lot of people aren't realizing how little McVay actually asked of him. There probably wasn't a more protected QB (in terms of scheming and not asking a lot) than Goff last year.

I mean, he's only in year 2 and is ostensibly still developing but I still think it's VERY possible that his ceiling might be Alex Smith.

And as we found out from Washington, if his ceiling is Alex Smith, come year four or five there's gonna be some team who will pay for the nose for a 28 year old Alex Smith just as Washington just did for a 33 year old Alex Smith.

I'd *love it* if the Rams really trusted that their talent on that side of the ball is McVay much more than the QB, and rolled the dice on another QB while extracting value from Goff to do so.

 

[bigskydoc]

That's why a Wilson, Rodgers, Brady, Brees type QB is so valuable. They can save the team.

I don't disagree, entirely. I do think that the Tier 1 QB salaries (except Brady) are crippling their teams, but then again, these QBs do tend to make those magical plays that save their teams. What about the next tier down? What about the Goff, Wentz, Cousins, Smith type QBs. (For now lets ignore exactly who belongs in which tier) Why break the bank for a good QB if you can build a solid system that supports pretty much any good QB, and feed good rookie QBs into that system?

If I were Philly and LA Rams, I would be looking to draft replacement QBs this year then look to trade Wentz/ Goff next year. There is always some team that is willing to overpay for QB talent (cough, Osweiler, cough, Bradford, cough).

Maybe it fails, maybe it doesn't. I'm hoping one of these teams tries it.

 

[adeltaY]

That's why a Wilson, Rodgers, Brady, Brees type QB is so valuable. They can save the team.

I don't disagree, entirely. I do think that the Tier 1 QB salaries (except Brady) are crippling their teams, but then again, these QBs do tend to make those magical plays that save their teams. What about the next tier down? What about the Goff, Wentz, Cousins, Smith type QBs. (For now lets ignore exactly who belongs in which tier) Why break the bank for a good QB if you can build a solid system that supports pretty much any good QB, and feed good rookie QBs into that system?

If I were Philly and LA Rams, I would be looking to draft replacement QBs this year then look to trade Wentz/ Goff next year. There is always some team that is willing to overpay for QB talent (cough, Osweiler, cough, Bradford, cough).

Maybe it fails, maybe it doesn't. I'm hoping one of these teams tries it.

It would be interesting to see doc. I just think that with the randomness of the playoffs given each game is single elimination, having a QB that can bail out the team is very important, but it must be on top of a good system. Can't do whatever the seahawks were trying to do last year where we relied too heavily on Russ. Pats, Saints, Steelers all have good to great systems and QBs that can step up if something goes wrong. Packers are decent but rely too heavily on Rodgers IMO.

 

[5_Golden_Rings]

People acting like the Rams aren’t #2 in the NFL in cap room for 2019 (projected 90 million under, and only 1 million less than the Jets at #1) and #1 in cap room for 2020.

They can pay everyone who balls out in their system, collect comp picks on the guys who don’t, and a lot of these guys are just transitionary players and aren’t even supposed to be long term pieces anyway (Whitworth, Talib, and Suh).

The other neat thing about what they’re doing is these are all trades, so they’ve added a ton of talent at a low salary cost for 2018 and are still projected to nab two 3rd round comp picks in next year’s draft.

Per overthecap:


https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

2019 what they'd have to pay these guys:

Donald: (calculated market value: ~19.5 million)
Cooks: ~14.8 million
Suh: ~14.2 million
Joyner: ~10.6 million
Peters: ~10 million
Talib: ~8 million
Gurley: ~10 million
Three starting offensive linemen tallying: ~10 million minimum
Sam Shields: whatever his market value will be it will be higher than they'll be willing to pay

However many role players, such as Tavon Austin, they want to keep. Ignoring them, they're already looking at, based on the above: Roughly 100 million dollars for 11 players.


They are not going to be able to keep this team together. One to two seasons maximum. and then they'll have to pray that Goff can take a step up and be the reason the team wins rather than merely a contributor.

Of course, they know that. They know that when they have to pay Goff, all bets are off. The team will collapse if Goff doesn't earn on the field what the market is going to demand they pay for him. We've seen it over and over again. If you are a contender with expensive pieces and a cheap QB, as soon as you pay the QB, half the time the team falls a part, because half the time the team was bringing up the QB rather than the other way around. That is why they are throwing everything in the pot now: they know the window may possibly be only two or three years.

That's also why I'm so stoked as a 49er fan. The 49ers talent around Garoppolo is garbage. HE brought THEM up, which means when the 49ers finally run out of room to add new guys, the team isn't going to be spiraling down, because it's the QB that has made them winner the last half of the season, not the guys around him bringing him up.

 

[RedAlice]

It is immensely entertaining that this off-season other teams fans are examining the Rams cap space for NEXT YEAR to criticize them.

Was only last year's off-season that other teams fans were just repeating over and over how much the Rams sucked even though I kept saying - McVay. Watch McVay.

Fun off-season. Oh how the times have changed.

 

[RedAlice]

And yes, Niner fans - you should feel that way.

The rest of your team around JGQ is garbage (well, you do have a few good pieces). I agree with you on that, and on what your team's future plans will be.

As we all say about each other, let's see how it goes.