Last night, the Patriots landed WR Brandin Cooks at the cost of a 1st round pick and swapping the 103rd pick for essentially the 131st pick (rough equivalent to a mid 5th round pick). The Patriots were not the only team that had a trade offer for Cooks as both the Titans and the Eagles were in on the speedy WR.
Source: Eagles offered Malcolm Jenkins, a third-round pick, and a fourth-round pick for Brandin Cooks https://t.co/x8UoIl4zGN
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 12, 2017
On the surface, that’s easily a better deal than what got Cooks in New England. The Saints could get a safety in his prime with the versatility to play man coverage against TEs and RBs in addition to a 3rd and 4th. So why didn’t the Saints take it? Simple, they wanted the first round pick the Patriots offered more. Malcolm Jenkins would cost the Saints $30M over 4 years whereas the player selected with the 32nd pick will cost them $8M over that same time frame (using Malcom Brown’s contract as the example) and including the 5th year option $15-16M over 5 years. The Saints are better off taking the likely surplus value from the first round pick anyway.
The draft has plenty of talented defensive backs that add speed and talent to a young Saints secondary that has a lot of talent. The Saints already had Kenny Vaccaro and Vonn Bell, who was part of a Patriots draft trade that netted them Joe Thuney and Malcolm Mitchell, at safety so they’re not interested in adding Jenkins. I don’t blame the Saints for opting for a first round pick in a deep CB draft class because there is a chance they can add a difference maker for their secondary without having to spend tens of millions in free agency.