Is newcomer Brandin Cooks the fastest guy on the roster?

FOXBOROUGH — Just how fast are the 2017 Patriots?

New England has had its share of burners and quick-twitch 3-cone stars over the years, but the Patriots have never been known as an overly fast bunch. This season might be a different story, as they added a pair of players in Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore, two guys who have shown electric speed over the last few years.

In particular, Cooks has flashed next-level speed in a number of occasions over the first week of camp, and has the capability of bringing an extraordinary new dimension to an offense that wasn’t considered overly fast in 2016. Cooks has already blown past a handful of New England defensive backs over the last week, including one play last week where he dusted cornerback Justin Coleman on a deep route. He added a sweet catch on a deep ball from Jimmy Garoppolo in that same session.

“I think he’s a good athlete. He runs well [and] he’s got good quickness,” Bill Belichick said of Cooks. “He’s worked really hard. He works hard, pays attention to all of the little details, tries to get things exactly the way we’re coaching them, the way we want to do them. It’s very good.”

Cooks — who was clocked running 20-plus MPH on multiple occasions last season when he was with the Saints — was coy when he was asked if he was the new fastest guy on the team. In previous years, there was some talk about Matthew Slater, a former high school track star and current special teams champ, being the fastest guy in Foxborough. Now? It might be up for a debate.

“A lot of cheetahs in this offense,” Cooks said after practice on Tuesday.

For that it’s worth, a check of 40 times from past combine and Pro Day performances reveals Cooks and cornerback Jonathan Jones had the best totals at 4.33. Devin McCourty ran a 4.38 40 at the 2010 combine, while Slater and Gilmore both checked in at 4.4 and Chris Hogan was clocked at 4.5 as a collegian.

How would he do against this group?

“To be honest, I don’t think about it. I just come out here and focus on what I have to do,” Cooks said. “If something like that happens one day with a race, then so be it. But right now, it’s all about football.”