Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks had another big game on Thursday night, catching seven of the eight passes thrown to him, for 116 yards and a touchdown, and adding a 10-yard run. Cooks has looked like a big addition to the Rams last year.
And he’s looked like a big subtraction from the Patriots, whose passing offense is struggling through three weeks of the season. The Patriots traded Cooks to the Rams this offseason, and so far they haven’t found a replacement for him: All of the wide receivers on the Patriots’ roster combined have totaled just 27 catches for 265 yards this season. Cooks has 26 catches for 452 yards this season.
It doesn’t help that Isaiah Wynn, the offensive tackle the Patriots drafted with the first-round pick they got for Cooks, is out for the season with a torn Achilles. If Wynn develops into a good player that changes the calculation, but right now the Patriots’ decision to trade Cooks looks like it cost them a lot and gained them little.
The good news for the Patriots is that their receiving corps should be a lot better soon: After Sunday, wide receiver Julian Edelman returns from his PED suspension. And wide receiver Josh Gordon, who arrived last week in a trade with the Browns, hasn’t played in New England yet. It’s possible that when Edelman’s suspension ends and Gordon gets on the field, the Patriots’ passing game will look just fine.
But the struggles of the passing game have contributed to two consecutive losses for the Patriots, and if they make it three losses in a row on Sunday against the 3-0 Dolphins, they’ll be in danger of failing to win the AFC East for the first time since 2008, the year Tom Brady was lost for the season with a knee injury in Week One.
The arrival of Cooks might turn out to be the piece of the puzzle that pushes the Rams into the Super Bowl. And the departure of Cooks might turn out to be the reason the Patriots don’t make it back.
