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brandin cooks

Patriots Training Camp Battle Preview: Wide Receiver

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After left tackle, there’s no more interesting position on the Patriots roster than wide receiver. After a major turnover in 2013, the Pats are once again looking at another evolution in 2018. Tom Brady hasn’t ever blinked before, managing to win even when those catching his throws had unimpressive names like Reche Caldwell, Kenbrell Thompkins and Brandon Lloyd.

Now, at 40, Brady will once again have to find a new set of go-to targets after the departures of Danny Amendola and Brandin Cooks, the pending suspension of 32-year-old Julian Edelman and the recurring absences of promising 2016 rookie Malcolm Mitchell. The Patriots have done well to prepare for this transition, going back into last season, but who clicks with Brady and can stay healthy is a near-impossible thing to predict.

Here’s a rundown of the wide receiver camp battle and who the favorites are to become the next clutch receivers.

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Patriots Trade Cooks to Rams, Pick Up Another First-Round Pick

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Brandin Cooks had one of the more interesting first seasons for a new Patriots receiver. He put up over 1,000 yards on 65 catches with seven touchdowns, yet there was still debate if Cooks was everything Patriots fans expected him to be. After all, these same fans had been complaining about the lack of a deep threat since Belichick traded away Randy Moss, and yet now Cooks is gone after just one season, traded to the Rams for a first round pick, while also swapping a fourth-rounder down to a sixth rounder.

The Pats’ picks are now:

1.23 (LAR)
1.31
2.43 (SF)
2.63
3.95
6.TBD (LAR)
6.210
7.219

That’s plenty of ammo to move up and down the draft board to give a much-needed influx of talent in necessary spots such as left tackle, linebacker and defensive end. Just for fun, based on the draft value chart the Patriots could get all the way up to ninth overall with a package of the 23rd and 31st pick. But I doubt they’ll do that.

The trade of Cooks isn’t a total shocker and re-allocates some capital into the first round of the draft.They’ve made just two first-round picks in the last five years, and only Malcom Brown is still on the roster. Now, with two first rounders the Pats look ready to do some damage. It will also open up more cap space, with @Patscap currently having their number at $14.7 million.

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Too Many Cooks Takes: Was First-Year Receiver a Disappointment?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfZkaVPwOPE

I’ve tried to take a break from the old cycle of “reporter makes dumb take, everyone responds with outrage thereby giving said reporter the attention they’re looking for” but it hasn’t been easy the last couple of days. The pinnacle was Adam Jones’ take that re-signing Brandon Bolden was somehow a bad thing.

Now I could go off on how stupid this is in a longform article — how the Patriots must build a 90-man roster and a beloved veteran who’s a special teams stud and can fill in at any running back role at a veteran minimum salary is an easy slam dunk, but again, I’m trying to break the cycle and the only way to do that is not to play their game. That take wasn’t even based in football reality, but another one kind of was.

That take came from Ben Volin, who I also ignore for the most part, that the Pats should extend Brandin Cooks or, if he won’t play ball, cut him outright and re-allocate his $8.5 million cap hit. This was a jumping off point to debate how good Cooks really was in his first year with the Pats. On paper, 65 catches for 1082 yards and six touchdowns looks pretty damn solid, especially for a first-year receiver with the Patriots.

However I do think it’s a more nuanced discussion than simply slapping down Cooks’ stats and feeling great about his season. His arrival as a “deep threat” raised expectations for the offense, but without Julian Edelman, some fundamental flaws came to light over the course of the season, that Cooks couldn’t solve.

Let’s take a deeper look and ask if a thousand-yard season can be a disappointment?

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Pats Posits: Relief, Bewilderment and Frustration After Pats’ SB52 Loss

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The Eagles made one of the only big defensive plays of the game and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 52 for their first championship last night. Before we get too heavily into the “what the hell happened” of it all, I think it’s important to say the Eagles played the perfect game. So few teams can put together the flawless 60-minutes of effort required to take down Tom Brady and steady strangulation of the Belichick Pats but that’s what Philadelphia did on the biggest stage and for all the bickering about what the Patriots did or didn’t do, Philly deserves full credit for what they did.

It’s also important to remember that despite one of their worst defensive performances in recent memory (which is saying a lot) Tom Brady still got the ball back with plenty of time to win the game. That’s where it felt like this one was heading, until it wasn’t because Brandon Graham made the clutch play that the Patriots defense could not.

So yes, there’s plenty to unpack from this one, and most of it will take an entire offseason, but in this single game the Eagles were the better team and for whatever reason I’m not finding it all that hard to swallow. It’s been a while since I’ve been in my Patriots cave of misery. The last time I was here was January of 2016 after a frustrating  loss to Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

There were some cobwebs in the cave, some dusty pictures of SB42 and SB46 and Peyton Manning as a Bronco, but there’s a strange comfort in the cave of misery. This is where most NFL fans exist full time, and we’ve gotten far more reprieve than all of them. If anything, this eighth Super Bowl trip was just a reminder of how hard it is to do what the Patriots have done. A better team got them this time, but I think there’s at least enough ammo in New England Patriots Football Weapon for another strong run next season.

Of course there are tons of questions as to what that weapon will look like exactly, but we’ll dive into those in the coming days and weeks.

First, let’s just vent about the Super Bowl…

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Film Review: Pats vs. Jags AFC Championship

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After a day of wonky performance by NFL Game Rewind I was finally able to get it to function long enough to take a look at the All-22 film from the AFC Championship. It’s always nice to get a clean strategic view of the game without my stomach turning after every bad Patriots play.

I came away even more impressed with how the Jags executed, especially early. But really from the start of the second half you could see the Patriots taking their game to another level while the Jags were slowly starting to fade as they got closer and closer to a potential win. It’s just remarkable how steady the Patriots are. Some of the late punts in the second half left an even bigger impression on me because most teams would’ve packed it in.

Aside from the Patriots perseverance it was clear that the flaws of the 2017 team were still very much there. And with Dion Lewis mostly ineffective until the final game-sealing carry, it’s just incredible what Brady did, almost exclusively with Danny Amendola.

Great play designs, great adjustments and an unflinching approach to the game were the hallmarks of this performance.

Here are a bunch of my quick-hit thoughts.

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Breaking Down Patriots’ 3rd Down Nose Dive on Offense

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Third down is the most critical down in football and usually the Patriots are one of the best offenses in the league. In the last four seasons they ranked 6th (2014) and 4th (2016) when they won the Super Bowl and when they didn’t they ranked 16th (2013) and 11th (2015).

This season the loss of Julian Edelman loomed large for then third down offense. Edelman was then most targeted and reliable receiver with the game on the line. However early in then season the Pats didn’t fare too badly,

Through the first eight games, the Pats ranked 3rd on third down, converting 45.9 percent of their chances.

But since then they’ve fallen off dramatically, to the point where over the last four games they’ve converted just 30.2 percent of their third downs, second-worst in the league. All of Tom Brady‘s five interceptions in the last four games have come on third down.

These struggles are coming at the wrong time of year. Is this a critical flaw? Is there any hope in sight? Let’s take a deeper look.

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Film Review: Patriots Third Down Offense

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The Patriots went a mind boggling 0-11 on third down against the Dolphins, a feat they hadn’t accomplished since the dark days of the early 90’s. Without Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, the offense just couldn’t find anyone who could make a key play on the key down.

Let’s go through them one-by-one and see what went wrong and if there are any trends we can discern.

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