The Los Angeles Rams announced a 5-year contract for former New England Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks. The Rams acquired Cooks and a fourth round pick from the Patriots in exchange for first and sixth round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. The Patriots used that first round pick on offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn. Cooks was a fantastic wide receiver during his one year with the Patriots in 2017, recording one of the best seasons for a receiver under head coach Bill Belichick. He was a dominant deep ball threat, but never really developed into a short-area receiver that many thought possible when the Patriots acquired Cooks from the New Orleans Saints. Wide receivers around the league are receiving massive deals and the Patriots recognized they were not going to be able to retain Cooks on a long-term deal and opted to trade him instead of keep him during the 2018 NFL season. I’m curious to see what the Rams will pay the speedy receiver; I’m guessing he’ll make $14-16 million per year. — UPDATE: Rams are giving WR Brandin Cooks a five-year extension worth $80 million, tying him to LA for six years at $88 million, per source. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2018 Whew. That’s a lot of money. $16 million per year ties Cooks with Sammy Watkins as the 5th-highest paid wide receiver in the league, which just really emphasizes why the Patriots made the right call by trading Cooks when they had the chance. When you combine Cooks’ current contract and his additional $80 million in new money, Cooks is staying with the Rams for $14.67 million per year, which is the 7th-most for a wide receiver.<doc-sep>With reigning Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald expected to sign the biggest contract for a defender in NFL history before training camp, the Rams finally announced Tuesday that the team had signed … Brandin Cooks. FALSE ALARM, EVERYBODY! It’s a five-year, $80 million extension for Cooks, who is now under contract through 2023. Cooks, 24, is expected to line up on the outside and replace Sammy Watkins, who walked in free agency after the Rams had traded a second-round pick for him. In March, Watkins signed a three-year deal with Kansas City with $30 million guaranteed. The deal could be worth as much as $48 million, averaging out to the same $16 million annual figure that Cooks signed for—not that they’ll be compared or anything. It’s way too early to parse the value of this contract (the guaranteed money for Cooks has yet to be reported), but the deal put a bow on the Cooks trade, which was the eye of the Rams’ offseason storm. In the last five months, L.A. acquired cornerbacks Marcus Peters, Aqib Talib, and Sam Shields and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, and lost Watkins, defensive end Robert Quinn, and linebacker Alec Ogletree. The Rams already had one of the best collections of young talent on their rookie contracts in Jared Goff, Donald, and Todd Gurley entering the offseason, but adding Cooks and Peters gave them perhaps the best yet-to-be-paid core in the league. The Rams have been figuring out who they want to pay, and who to send on their way. Letting Watkins and cornerback Trumaine Johnson go in free agency were the first two dominoes (as well as a tacit admission that the Watkins trade failed). The third domino likely fell Monday, when the team failed to reach a long-term deal with the franchise-tagged safety Lamarcus Joyner, who is set to become a free agent in 2019. The fourth domino was Cooks’s deal, with the Rams following up the April trade with the Patriots that netted him and a fourth-round pick (no. 136 overall) for first- and sixth-round picks (no. 23 overall and no. 198 overall). The fifth domino will likely be Donald, which should be a record-setting boulder, probably before training camp. If the Rams can’t sign Donald to a deal before the season after they traded for and paid Cooks, it could send an odd message to the locker room. If the deal happens without a hitch, however, it will secure one of the best balanced cap situations in the NFL’s medium-term future. The Rams still have Peters and Gurley under team control for two more years and Goff for three, plus the potential to franchise-tag any of the three. Right now, their combined 2018 expenditure for those two All-Pros and their starting quarterback is just over $7 million. That collection of young, affordable talent gave the Rams tremendous short-term flexibility, something that allowed the team to add Suh on a whim to pair with Donald. The Rams have one glaring, short-term hole left to fill. Once they sign Donald to his record-setting deal, all will be quiet in L.A. … at least, until the next guys need to get paid.<doc-sep>The Los Angeles Rams have signed wide receiver Brandin Cooks to a five-year extension, keeping him in Los Angeles until 2023. Just prior to the 2018 NFL Draft, the Rams struck a deal with the New England Patriots for Cooks. He and a fourth-round pick headed to LA for the 23rd overall pick in the 2018 draft and a sixth-round pick as well. Cooks has yet to play a snap in the Rams uniform, but was seen as an integral piece to the offense since the departure of receiver Sammy Watkins who signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency. Cooks is a 24-year old receiver who will aid in the growth of the position as well as continued success from Pro Bowl quarterback Jared Goff. Cooks has amassed 280 receptions, 3,944 yards, and 27 touchdowns in four seasons in the league. This may strike a nerve as the Rams are still working toward a long-term deal with star defender Aaron Donald. Check back for the updated terms of the deal. (Updated at 3:28pm ET) As part of the Rams’ official public statement, Head Coach Sean McVay offered the following: Brandin Cooks has shown himself to be a class act on and off the field since the first day he joined our team. He’s a proven professional in this league and signing him to a long-term contract was always our goal. We’re excited to keep Brandin in a Rams uniform through 2023. (Updated at 3:38pm ET) ESPN’s Adam Schefter has the first terms of the deal. It’s a five-year extension for $80m. That would match the average per year of Watkins, though for longer. No word on guaranteed money or yearly structure: Rams are giving WR Brandin Cooks a five-year extension worth $80 million, tying him to LA for six years at $88 million, per source. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2018 (Updated at 3:48pm ET) The Archer speaks!<doc-sep>It has been a good month for Rams receiver Brandin Cooks. He got married less than two weeks ago and Tuesday he signed a five-year contract extension. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the extension is worth $80 million, a person with knowledge of the situation said. “It’s been an amazing month, and a blessing,” Cooks said during a teleconference with reporters. Cooks, 24, was acquired in April in a trade with the New England Patriots. The former first-round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints has more than 1,000 yards receiving in three of his four NFL seasons. Advertisement Cooks has scored 28 touchdowns, including seven last season. “Brandin Cooks has shown himself to be a class act on and off the field since the first day he joined our team,” coach Sean McVay said in a statement. “He’s a proven professional in this league and signing him to a long-term contract was always our goal. We’re excited to keep Brandin in a Rams uniform through 2023.” Cooks is beginning the fifth and final year of his contract. He carries a salary-cap number of about $8.5 million. Cooks is expected to start alongside receivers Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp for a Rams team that has generated Super Bowl buzz after acquiring Cooks, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib. From the day they traded for him, the Rams had spoken about trying to work out an extension with Cooks, who is expected to provide a deep threat for quarterback Jared Goff. Cooks had said his contract situation would take care of itself. On Tuesday, Cooks said he began to feel comfortable with the Rams “as soon as I stepped into the building” in Thousand Oaks in April. “What they had going on, even before I got here, you saw something special going on with this team and the coach,” he said, adding: “It’s a young culture that’s very energetic.” The signing of Cooks came a day after the deadline for the Rams to work out a long-term deal with safety Lamarcus Joyner, who will receive about $11.3 million playing this season under the franchise tag. Advertisement The Rams and defensive tackle Aaron Donald still have not come to terms on a new deal. The reigning NFL defensive player of the year, who is due to earn $6.9 million in the final year of his deal and seeking an extension that would put him among the NFL’s highest-paid players, is not expected to report when the Rams begin training camp July 26 at UC Irvine. gary.klein@latimes.com Twitter: @latimesklein<doc-sep>
The Los Angeles Rams have quite a few high-profile players with soon-to-be expiring contracts, most notably reigning Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald. I am happy to report that he’s not the one whose contract extension was announced on Tuesday, as the team announced that WR Brandin Cooks has agreed to a five-year contract extension. “Brandin Cooks has shown himself to be a class act on and off the field since the first day he joined our team,” Rams Head Coach Sean McVay said in the press release. “He’s a proven professional in this league and signing him to a long-term contract was always our goal. We’re excited to keep Brandin in a Rams uniform through 2023.” ESPN’s Adam Schefter has the terms of the deal. Rams are giving WR Brandin Cooks a five-year extension worth $80 million, tying him to LA for six years at $88 million, per source. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 17, 2018 Cooks was traded by the New England Patriots to the Rams in exchange for LA’s first-round and sixth-round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. LA also received New England’s 2018 fourth-rounder. The 24-year-old speedster had his fifth-year option picked up by New England when they acquired him from the New Orleans Saints in 2017, so Cooks was going to be a free agent heading into the 2019 offseason prior to this announcement. Among the impending unrestricted free agents the Rams face in 2019 include the aforementioned Donald, safety Lamarcus Joyner (whom they did not reach a long-term deal with), left guard Rodger Saffold, and one-year rental Ndamukong Suh. The likes of CBs Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, DL Michael Brockers, and RB Todd Gurley are set to have their contracts end after the 2019 season concludes. And it’s not as if they have a tremendous amount of cap space at the moment.