Last week saw New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks held without a catch for the first time in his three-year career. Heck, the former first-round pick was not targeted a single time by Drew Brees in a 49-21 win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Following the game, Cooks spoke out about his decreased role on the Saints’ offense, initially indicating that “closed mouths don’t get fed,” via ESPN.com.
After putting up 51 receptions for 736 yards in the first 10 games of the season, it was a bit of a surprise that Cooks didn’t play any role in last week’s blowout win over Los Angeles.
Now comes this report from NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport indicting that the Saints may very well look to trade Cooks in the offseason.
“Expect trade talks centered around Cooks leading up to the free-agency window, with the speedster no doubt set to draw interest,” Rapoport reported.
This also has to be considered a surprise. Remember, Cooks is coming off a sophomore season that saw him put up 84 receptions for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns. At that point, most figured he would continue to act as the team’s No. 1 receiver.
But that’s been far from the case recently with the likes of Michael Thomas and Willie Snead seeing more opportunites in the Saints’ pass-happy offense.
As Rapoport noted, Cooks would likely draw a ton of interest in the open market. The only real issue here is just how he’s perceived by the rest of the NFL. In the past, Saints receivers who performed well with Brees in New Orleans have failed to do much of anything after departing the Bayou.
We’re not sure how much of a role that’s going to play moving forward here.
One thing is known. The Saints will likely look to placate Cooks for the remainder of the season before putting him on the auctioning block when the offseason starts. That’s a shocking development in one of the most-surprising soap operas of the NFL season.