It’s a done deal.
Receiver Brandin Cooks officially is a Patriot, following a trade that shipped the 2014 first-round pick from New Orleans to New England.
The Patriots announced the trade on Saturday evening. While the terms were not disclosed, the deal was finalized in the same way it originally was negotiated, with the Patriots sending a first-round pick and a third-round pick to the Saints, and the Saints sending Cooks and a fourth-round pick (No. 118) to the Patriots.
The Patriots will lose the 118th pick as part of the #DeflateGate punishment, but the trade will restore to the Patriots the 132nd pick, which the Patriots previously obtained from the Seahawks.
As one source explained it to PFT, the Saints ultimately did not attempt to trade down from No. 118 with a team holding one of the picks from No. 119 to 131 before sending to the Patriots the fourth-round pick that will be bogarted by 345 Park Avenue. Since the pick was going to be forfeited anyway, any consideration the Saints could have obtained by trading down would have been a bonus.
