Among the notable departures from the Los Angeles Rams this offseason was that of wide receiver Brandin Cooks. It seems his absence is going to take some getting used to for wide receiver Cooper Kupp.
Both players had helped form one of the league's most talented receiving corps. Kupp admits that losing Cooks is a huge blow to the offense, via the team's official website:
“It’s hard to find people that can run the way that Brandin can run. It’s a pretty special trait that he has, so it’s going to be hard to obviously emulate anything like that in terms of the deep threat that he is,” Kupp said on a conference call last week. “But I think each of us, any receiver that you ask in our receiver room, you ask us – none of us feels that we need to be aided to get open. Obviously, a coach is going to scheme you to give you the best opportunity to be open, Jared’s going to put the ball in the right place. Everyone’s going to do their job to give you the best opportunity to be open, but every single person on the team is going to say, ‘I can get it done, too. I can get this done. Anything you need me to get done on my own, I can do it.’”
Cooks made his bones in the league as a bonafide deep threat thanks to his blazing speed. Although he may be coming off a modest 2019 campaign, his mere presence helped pay huge dividends for Kupp and wide receiver Robert Woods underneath.
Of course, Cooks' status as a mere decoy was not enough for the Rams to pass up on the chance to shore up some more cap space in order to help fill the other voids on the roster. The onus will now fall on the pairing of Kupp and Woods to shoulder the load.
Fortunately, Los Angeles has good reason to be confident, given the one-two punch that they have already established. Meanwhile, Cooks will have an opportunity to enjoy a potential resurgence in the 2020 NFL season as quarterback Deshaun Watson's No. 1 target.
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