I think that whatever consensus exists that the trade is worth it, will turn pretty fast to a "no" if the Rams can't sign Cooks.
It's fine for the Rams to have a limit on what they're willing to pay for a player and stick to their guns.
This seems to be why they weren't able to retain Watkins.
KC, in the end, was just willing to pay him more. In a 32 team league, that will often be the case.
But when you give up a 1. AND, when that comes in the wake of losing Watkins after only one year of play, then I think they have to hit the 2nd time.
And my strong hope is that they were able to get at least some kind of assurance, before the trade, that Cooks and his agent are willing to do a long term deal, with some kind of market-based starting point to negotiations.
But they may have to be willing to pay a little bit of a premium, if they really think Cooks is a good fit. They may have to bend a little on their normal approach.
Otherwise, as Deadpool has pointed out, why wouldn't he just play for a year and hit free agency? And see what the market will bear.
They'd better be willing to do what it takes to avert that outcome.
Suh is probably only here for a year. Talib is probably gone after 2 years.
So they aren't really trying to keep everybody long term, just a core, as others have already detailed much better than I
I believe they can do what they're doing right now AND continue to build a team for the long term.
The image of pushing all the chips to the middle of the table is flawed, because in that analogy, if you don't win a SB this year, you're busted!
Somebody else walks away with all your chips.
And that's just not the case. The Rams can go at this now, and keep going at it again, and again.
HOWEVER, I DO think that the looming CBA expiration might also be on their minds.
When that hits, the NFL's business as usual could be interrupted for quite some time.
And the salary and cap structure that emerges may be something quite different.
So it could be the Rams are saying "Lets play for it all before that comes, and just adapt to the new world afterwards."
Ramily!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2018 03:03PM by Saguaro.
