Bedard: Cooks trade and draft bounty opens limitless possibilities for Belichick to restock

You may have some airing of grievances to tend to, Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady, but hold up a second: Bill Belichick is busy doing work on his squad.

While everyone else was preoccupied with phrases like all-in, being appreciated, and conviction, Belichick pulled off a whopper of a trade that sent Brandin Cooks and a fourth-round pick to the Rams in exchange for the Rams' first- and sixth-round picks.

So, to recap, here's the way the trade came out with the value chart (estimating for Cooks):



 

And, now after the trade, this is how the Patriots' 2018 draft board looks, with the value for the first-round picks in front of them:



 



NOTE: Sorry, was working off an (apparently old chart before the Jets-Colts trade).

 

Now, let's get into my reaction to the trade and what could possibly be coming down the pike, and how likely certain scenarios are:

TRADE REACTION

I'm blown away at the value Belichick received for this pick. I can't believe he got the Rams to give up the 23rd overall pick for a No. 2 receiver who will cost $8.49 million this season and at least $16 million next season under the tag or part of a contract extension.

And that's what Cooks was. A No. 2 receiver. Without Julian Edelman and, especially, when Gronkowski was out of the lineup, Cooks was exposed as an ensemble player who needed other players and help from the scheme to get him open. Make no mistake: The guy could fly and take the top off a defense like few others. But if he had to be the man and muscle for tough yards/catches to move the chains, more often than not, it didn't happen.

That the Patriots traded Cooks is not a huge surprise. There was no way the Patriots were going to let him play for the tag next season — Belichick does not pay receivers, and he shouldn't. Just look at this list, from overthecap.com, of the receivers making over $14 million per season. See any players on the list that carried their teams to Super Bowl titles? Me neither.



Belichick might have entertained the thought of perhaps striking a deal with Cooks. But once Jarvis Landry was tagged, Sammy Watkins received $30 million guaranteed from the Chiefs for a mediocre career so far, and then Allen Robinson (coming off ACL surgery) received $14 million per season, the chances for a common-sense deal with Cooks that benefited both sides likely evaporated.

I never understood the Patriots' deal for Cooks because New England has never drafted a receiver in the first round (when they have five years of cost controls) and now, suddenly, they were spending a first-round pick on a player for only two years of control? It never made any sense.

Now, after this deal, the Patriots basically spent a third-round pick to rent Cooks for a season. That I can deal with. Did the Patriots know they were going to be able to do that? Only if they knew some sucker like the Rams or Browns (before John Dorsey got there) would step up to the plate. The Patriots are good, but I don't even know if they knew they were going to be that good.

WHAT NOW?

Here are a few of the possibilities:

The Patriots could trade for a talented/troubled receiver like Odell Beckham Jr., or Dez Bryant.

Everyone knows the Giants are in some sort of dance with their problem-child receiver, who also just so happens to be playing in his fifth-year option at the same money at Cooks. Reports indicate the Giants would entertain dealing Beckham for two first-round draft choices (actual price will be lower). Trading for Beckham would put the Patriots in the exact same spot they were in with Cooks — and Beckham, while more talented, is much more of a headache and less durable and he wants to be the highest-paid receiver (reportedly won't step on a field until he gets a new deal). I don't see it. Of course, I didn't think they'd do the Cooks deal. But at least New England had a trade option with him. With Beckham, they don't. If they did not sign him to a huge extension, the Patriots would have to tag him ($16 million) or let him sign elsewhere for a compensatory (third round) pick. That's a few bridges too far it would appear.

Now, Bryant, I could see that. The Cowboys want Bryant to take a pay cut. He's scheduled to count $16.5 million against Dallas' cap the next two seasons, and the Cowboys want him to take a shave on that. If you're the Patriots and you acquire Bryant (he played 16 games last season, he missed 10 in the previous two years combined), the pay cut comes built-in: he counts $12.5 million against the cap to his new team. The question is -- do the Patriots want to pay even that much for a player who caught only 69 passes for 838 yards and six touchdowns (Bryant caught 17 touchdowns in the previous three years and 41 in the three seasons before that) and led all receivers with 12 drops and was second-worst in drop rate to Amari Cooper among starters (per PFF)? Still, that's not a receiver-friendly offense in Dallas and Brady is just a little bit better than Dak Prescott (little bit).

Other receivers coming up on free agency (who have had their bonuses paid out, so it's just the salary for a team like New England) if the Patriots are now in the market of kicking the can down the road on outside receivers; 2019 — Golden Tate, Amari Cooper, Brandon Marshall; 2020 — A.J. Green, Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, DeSean Jackson (bold are Patriots-friendly front offices).

Stand pat at receiver and work the draft capital to rebuild the core

Look, Cooks had 65 catches, 1,082 yards and six touchdowns, but Brandon Lloyd had similar numbers ... so let's not make it out like the offense is barren. They can certainly line up at receiver: Malcolm Mitchell, Phillip Dorsett (who was very underrated last year and may have helped this move), Kenny Britt and (to a lesser extent) Cordarrelle Patterson all return at X, and that's the way I would rank them today. And the Patriots still have Edelman, Chris Hogan and, perhaps, Riley McCarron at Z. And they still have Rob Gronkowski (Cooks deal likely lessens any potential deal there) and Dwayne Allen (for now) at tight end.

If the Patriots keep their picks (they won't), they have a chance to address their big glaring weaknesses — left tackle, edge, quarterback of future and tight end of future — with all of them.

Or if the Patriots were dead set on pushing the QB issue (if Brady is, indeed, year-to-year now), they could package four or all five of the top 100 picks (2106/2226 points) and likely move to No. 3 (2200 points) and select the apple of their eye if he falls to that spot (Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold are odds-on favorites to go 1-2, leaving perhaps Josh Rosen). Of course, that would mean the Jets, who swapped picks with the Colts, would have to trade with the Patriots. Have a hard time seeing that.

The Patriots could, theoretically, get to No. 2 by throwing in a player (Gronkowski?) but I think that's fairly silly.

Imagine that scenario/phone call: Belichick has to call Colts general manager Chris Ballard — the man who thought he had Josh McDaniels as his next coach — and swing a deal to select a player that could be McDaniels' hand-picked QB should he succeed Belichick.

Or Belichick could leap up to 3, and then field offers for the third QB and keep dealing back.

(Sorry, was working off an old chart ... the conversation could still happen, but it would be at No. 6 after the trade with the Jets).

I think a more likely option is the Patriots could use the two first-round picks to get to the 8/9 area to take an impact defender.

But the most likely scenario would be they could pair up the first- and second-round picks to swoop in for impact players at 11/12 and 18/19 — sort of what they did in 2012 trading up for Chandler Jones (21st) and Dont'a Hightower (25th), only on a slightly larger scale.

Bottom line: the options, now that the Patriots have five picks in the top 100 of the draft, are truly limitless.

And this draft season got a lot more interesting in New England.