{"id":15659,"date":"2017-03-10T19:46:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T00:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=15659"},"modified":"2017-03-10T19:53:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T00:53:28","slug":"new-orleans-saints-trade-brandin-cooks-new-england-patriots-malcolm-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/03\/10\/new-orleans-saints-trade-brandin-cooks-new-england-patriots-malcolm-butler\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Saints Trade Brandin Cooks to New England Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the off-season, there has been plenty of speculation that the New Orleans Saints would trade star wide receiver <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CookBr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandin Cooks<\/a><\/strong>. All of the rumors were proven to be true today, as Cooks was shipped to the New England Patriots along with a fourth-round pick, in exchange Patriots&#8217; first and third round selections in the 2017 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Patriots?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Patriots<\/a> are trading for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Saints?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Saints<\/a> WR Brandin Cooks for a package that includes their No. 32 pick, sources say (as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/diannaESPN\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@diannaESPN<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/840361908620427266\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 11, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nNew Orleans Saints Trade <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/CookBr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandin Cooks<\/a> to New England Patriots<\/h2>\n<p>At first glance, the trade may seem like something of a surprise, but in light of recent events, is a logical move for both franchises. New Orleans is clearly ready to commit to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=ThomMi02,ThomMi05&amp;search=Michael+Thomas&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Thomas<\/a><\/strong> as the top target in their potent passing game,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SneaWi00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Willie Snead<\/a><\/strong> will slot in nicely as a more-than capable-number two, and newly-signed speedster <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GinnTe00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ted Ginn<\/a><\/strong> will <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/2017\/03\/09\/ted-ginn-jr-signs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slot in as a\u00a0valuable deep threat<\/a>. For a team that has struggled defensively for several seasons, upgrading the defense is paramount, and for that reason moving Cooks was a logical course of actions. Cooks is coming off back-to-back 1,100-plus yard seasons, and New Orleans is clearly cashing in on the 23-year-old&#8217;s value.<\/p>\n<p>Cooks is entering a contract year, although the Patriots can exercise his fifth-year option for the 2018 season. Cooks will join <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BradTo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tom Brady<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/G\/GronRo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Gronkowski<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EdelJu00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Edelman<\/a><\/strong>, recent acquisition <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/AlleDw00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwayne Allen<\/a><\/strong>, and many others in a crowded but high-powered Patriots passing attack, and his versatile skill set will make the offense even more effective. Ultimately, as shocking as the deal may seem, the move makes sense and represents a key moment of the 2017 off-season for both franchises.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/629896646\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%; display: inline-block; position: absolute;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/629896646?et=l0vT5sHwSE5idXvWP6d0Bg&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=AMRN9dgHyf7dOnt_8uXvHEQTH4CJ7HZx8UIyia6O__c=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a stunner, the New Orleans Saints have agreed to trade star wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the New England Patriots for a first round pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":15702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2,5,28],"tags":[354,61,38,309,40],"class_list":["post-15659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-featured","category-patriots","category-saints","tag-brandin-cooks","tag-football","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"David McCaffery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}