Why Does Brandin Cooks Keep Getting Traded?!

Is it just me or does this story pop up once a year? Brandin Cooks, speedy WR out of Oregon State traded...again! At this point, you have to kind of wonder why, right? Let's see if we can figure this one out.

First, let's take a look @ the trades that Brandin Cooks has been involved in since he was drafted in 2014.

1. The Saints dealt him with a 2017 fourth-round pick to the Patriots for a 2017 first-round pick and a 3rd-round pick

2. The Patriots traded him with a fourth-round pick to the Rams for a 2018 first-round pick and a sixth-rounder

3. The Rams traded him with a fourth-round pick to the Texans for a 2020 second-round pick

One may look @ this and think to themselves, man, this guy must be a handful, or overrated to some degree. I say its the opposite. He's the rare case of a player whose talent matches his contract well enough that a team would trade for him and yet his talent is replaceable enough for the original team to move off of him. We've seen these types of players over the years in sports (Jimmy Butler comes to mind) albeit they are few and far between.

Think about it, what does Brandin Cooks do well? He's fast, he's speedy. Well, when you need to shed $'s off payroll, what's going to be the first thing to go? Something you can replace for cheap labor in the draft. And with the 2020 NFL Draft around the corner, speed is always plentiful this time of year. That leads to a Cooks trade.

Plus, Cooks has been the pawn in a large game of desperation plays from the teams that have made a move for him over the years. The Saints needed depth, the Pats needed to appease Brady, and poof - Cooks is a Patriot. The Pats found a cheap replacement in Phillip Dorsett and the Rams needed a speedster for their new McVay offense - poof, he's Ram. And now, the Texans foolishly traded D-Hop, and they need to keep Watson happy...poof...you get the picture.

Via ESPN.COM: Los Angeles will have $21.8 million in dead money on its cap for Cooks in 2020 and more than $33 million in dead money between the failed deals for Cooks and Gurley.

Baltimore Ravens v Los Angeles Rams

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