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brandin cooks

Patriots Acquire Brandin Cooks (For Draft Picks Only)

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If you liked the Stephon Gilmore and Kony Ealy additions, you’re going to love the Patriots nabbing Brandin Cooks without losing Malcolm Butler! While we weighed the gain/loss of Cooks/Butler for the last day-and-a-half, it turns out Malcolm isn’t GOing anywhere!

Bill Belichick is relentless. We knew there was cap space but we never suspected the majority of the early work would be through trades. It just shows how creative and efficient the Patriots are at staying ahead of the pack.

It’s exciting to think about the explosiveness Cooks will be in the offense. After seeing Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell make nice with Tom Brady right out of the gate, I’m feeling like as long as Cooks doesn’t take #17 he’s going to have no problem adjusting to the Patriots’ offense.

Cooks can run every route in the playbook, including from out of the back field. He’s crisp with his routes and makes catches in traffic with his hands. His explosiveness makes him a threat to score every time he catches the ball. But he’s just as dangerous horizontally as he is vertically. The Patriots will move him all over the place and can dictate coverage with him.

This puts a spotlight on Danny Amendola a bit more now. At the right place I still think they’d like him back, but it might also be time to finally move on from the clutch wide out.

But don’t let Amendola’s future put a damper on this acquisition of Cooks. It changes the offense once again and should be near-impossible to stop. Exciting to see what happens in the backfield, but so far the Patriots are out to an awesome start to 2017. Hightower next please?

Patriots Friday Free Agency Regroup

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As we not-so-patiently wait for news on Dont’a Hightower, Malcolm Butler and Brandin Cooks, here’s a quick regroup on the latest from early Friday.

Two more visits were reported.

Hunter was a guy I really liked coming out in 2013. I wanted the Pats to draft him instead of Aaron Dobson, but neither guy really set the world on fire. This would be Hunter’s fourth team and he’s never topped 28 catches. Still, he’s long and has always had good athleticism. He’d be an interesting project as an outside receiver in the Pats system. He’d be one of those “throw ’em against the wall and see what sticks” kind of additions. But if you’ve got potential and you can’t reach it with Tom Brady throwing to you, you’re never reaching it.

Guy’s been kicking around the league since 2012, playing with three different teams, most recently the Ravens, who he started 10 games for last season. He’s a classic cheap camp body the Pats love to grab. Provides some depth along the defensive interior with his good size (6’5″, 300), but barring injuries would likely be a camp casualty.

New addition Dwayne Allen spoke with the Boston media today, and this quote sums it up nicely.

Allen is saying all the right things and it’s already clear he’ll be a solid addition who will play a number of roles. Check out more with him from Patriots.com:

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Patriots Take Early Free Agency Aim at Secondary

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I hesitate to jump into anything before it becomes official, but the news is already flying so let’s jump in and figure out and take a look at the rumors circling the Pats as we wait for free agency to officially start at 4pm EST. Then we’ll jump into full analysis of the guys they actually do sign, but there are already signs today could be filled with fireworks.

First comes this…

Then this…

And this…


Plenty to digest here. Let’s start with Gilmore, who would fit the man coverage style the Patriots have gravitated toward in recent seasons. It’s reported that Gilmore could sign for as much as $14 million per season. Before I re-evaluate everything I believe about the Patriots and cornerbacks, I’ll wait until the actual numbers come out. The Pats are always creative at getting value even if the numbers give the player an exciting headline.

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Patriots Rumor Roundup – Free Agency Eve Edition

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The league year starts at 4pm EST tomorrow (Thursday) and with it comes the flurry of activity that always accompanies the start of free agency. Teams have been tampering, legally of course(!), for the last couple days and many will already have contracts in place with the players of their choice.

Meanwhile the Patriots are sitting back and appear willing to let the market dictate what happens with all their key free agent pieces like Dont’a Hightower, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon. This is the patient economist in Belichick, who knows that even if you lose players to over-priced deals the value will come back around when teams have to cut very good players so they can afford their free agent swings for the fences.

I know this time of year can be a frenzy of excitement and disappointment, but the Pats have over $54 million in cap space at last check (per Miguel Benzan, the @PatsCap guru), so things are going to happen.

Strap up and let’s take one last reset on the latest mostly-bullshit rumors that are flying before reality sets in tomorrow.

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Pats Posits: Are You Ready for Free Agency?

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Tom Brady First Down Browns

The “legal tampering period” starts tomorrow and the official 2017 NFL league year starts on Thursday, which means there’s going to be a flurry of things to talk about this week. Some bad, as Patriots free agents take trips and likely sign elsewhere, and some boring, as the Patriots take their usual slow start, which will probably include signing some special teams guy no one has talked about at all.  It doesn’t take 888 casino review to tell you that’s a lock.

That’s just how things go in Patriots Nation. And it certainly doesn’t mean anyone is used to it or done complaining about it, even after five Super Bowls. Plenty of new is already starting to slip out, so let’s take a look at what we’ve heard and what to expect.

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