Cook on the trading block? update: no?

from Teams target Vernon Davis, Jared Cook as tight end market heats up

JASON LA CANFORA

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/25343521/teams-target-vernon-davis-jared-cook-as-tight-end-market-heats-up

Several teams are exploring upgrading at tight end ahead of next month’s NFL trade deadline, with the 49ers and Rams fielding recent calls exploring the availability of Vernon Davis and Jared Cook, respectively, according to multiple league sources. Both clubs appear open to that possibility, and while no deals are imminent at this time, they could well come to pass prior to the Nov. 3 deadline.

…

Cook’s contract makes a move for him trickier, but that has not stopped teams from at least making exploratory phone calls. He has two years, worth $7 million a season, left on his deal beyond 2015, but all of his guaranteed money is paid, so a team could part with him in the offseason without cap or cash ramifications. His production has been spotty, but he does have the capacity to make explosive plays. It may prove difficult for the Rams to get the kind of return they would hope given the expense involved in picking up the contract, but with tight end Lance Kendricks under contract in St. Louis through 2018, teams will continue to gauge Cook’s value ahead of the deadline.

Several NFL executives believe this could be a more fertile trade deadline than normal, with clubs now adjusted to the later deadline and with there being a growing delineation between the haves and the have nots, with half a dozen teams undefeated and a legion of clubs with one win or less.

It would just mean more targets for WRs that can catch the ball. I would almost trade the draft choice we got from Balt. to a team that would take Cook. 😉 Cook has been in my dog house ever since he shoved Austin Davis on the side line.

wv wrote:

Well how do you guys view Snisher’s free-agent signings
so far?

Cortland Finnegan, J. Cook, Jake Long, K Britt,
William Hayes…who else?

w
v

Some work some don’t. You should always look for value. That makes the high price FAs had to get value from. I think, can the player play to the value of his contract? You are better off keeping your own than adding one of theirs.

Finnegan and Cook were almost doomed from the start. Long had a chance. So did Wells. I liked Britt and Hayes and Sims. I like Long, and Laurinaitis and Quinn better. Fairley and Ayers are OK. Reyonolds and Dunbar are fine. That is about it.

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

Well how do you guys view Snisher’s free-agent signings
so far?

Cortland Finnegan, J. Cook, Jake Long, K Britt,
William Hayes…who else?

w
v

Trades AND FAs:

Good: Hayes, Barron

Okay to Good-ish: Langford, Fairley, Ayers, Chris Williams, Barksdale, Richardson, Turner, Britt, Clemens, Dunbar, Reynolds

Unlucky: Long, Wells, Finnegan

Bad: Cook, joseph.

I would say it was okay to good-ish if it weren’t for the bad luck with guys getting injured.

Cook was a bad signing though, no 2 ways about it.

Mostly, however, what they did was sign inexpensive role players and rotation types. Look at the “okay to good-ish” list.

The UDFA list is far better though.

…

Interesting way to look at it. Obviously
the tricky part is the part you called “unlucky”.

There’s people that would call those players
“bad signings”.

I dunno, myself.

w
v

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

the tricky part is the part you called “unlucky”.

There’s people that would call those players
“bad signings”.

Yeah I have had long, long disputes over the years with guys who just do not understand the effect of injuries.

When Wells and Long were playing okay in 2013, the Rams OL was ranked 13th by PFF.

It’s similar to people blaming all of 2007 on Bulger when that year the OL lost 10 guys to injury, including 4 for the season. There were people who could never get their heads around the fact that the OL injuries made a difference.

The issue with Long in 2013 was whether he had recovered enough from 2 arm injuries to play effectively. Well, he played fine that year…not like his old pro-bowl self, but effectively in a play action offense. The 2 arms did not foreshadow 2 knees. Anyone who thinks so, IMO, is just being superstitious.

.

I can see several different sides of it. I mean, Jake had a history
of injuries. Some posters thot he was put together with duck-tape
before the Rams signed him. So, i can see giving Snisher
a failing grade on the Jake Long signing.

Personally, i liked the signing at the time.
I thought he was worth the risk, etc.

Etc and so forth.

w
v

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

. I mean, Jake had a history
of injuries. Some posters thot he was put together with duck-tape
before the Rams signed him.

He had 2 separate arm surgeries. So what he had was a history of 2 separate arm surgeries. The “put together with duct tape” thing to me was just not credible. The issue was whether he could still play with the arms. And, he could. Not like his old self, but he could.

To me there is no other side to the story. He had 2 arm surgeries and could still play. None of that predicts, foreshadows, or pre-determines 2 injuries to the same knee. That’s just plain bad luck.

People say sometimes, if a guy has had a couple of injuries, he’s set up for more. But see the thing is, they say that as if it were true, and never prove it. They just act like the assumption is real. Well, I say, prove it. What percentage of players who are still within the 4-7 year “prime years” window have one surgery and are therefore doomed to others? Percentages would mean something to me. Cracker barrel armchair wisdom? Not so much.

Well, i know thats how you view it.

Myself, I dunno. Looking back there were people
who thought he had regressed and was not the same
Jake Long who’d been in the pro-bowls.

So, there’s different views on whether
it counts as a bad signing or an unlucky signing.

w
v

this would be wonderful.

get some more snaps for harkey.

and send a message to the team too.

from off the net

==

TackleDummy

According to the CBA any veteran player who is on the roster the first week of the regular season is guaranteed his entire annual salary. That means Cook is due his entire salary even if the Rams cut him. They need to find someone to take him and pay his remaining salary. That is probably not going to happen. I believe it is possible for the Rams to pay a portion of his salary and the new team the rest. But that portion would be added to the Ram’s dead money for Cook.

Do note that the Rams have already paid him about $2.88M of his $7M salary after this weekend. He will be due about $4.12M for the rest of the season. Each weekly paycheck is 1/17th of his base salary.

I dont really care if they trade him this year,
but i damn sure dont want him back ‘next’ year.

“..they also could part ways with him after the year with a cap savings of nearly $5.7 million…”

w
v

I think we should swap Cook for Vernon Davis straight up. They need more vertical threats and we need a physical fast TE who can play in our O.

If we can extend Davis and he checks out medically, I’d do it in a heartbeat…

Tight end Jared Cook, Rams shrug off trade rumors

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/22674/tight-end-jared-cook-rams-shrug-off-trade-rumors

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Without any football to discuss, the combination of a bye week and an approaching trade deadline stirred up the St. Louis Rams rumor mill over the weekend.

In this instance, Rams tight end Jared Cook was the perceived target as one report had the Rams shopping him and another had teams calling the Rams about him.

On Tuesday, Rams coach Jeff Fisher acknowledged that the Rams received calls about Cook but also insisted that Cook is not up for sale before the Nov. 3 trade deadline.

Jared Cook
Jared Cook has been the target of trade speculation over the past week.
“I have no interest in trading Jared,” Fisher said. “He’s a big part of our offense. I don’t know where that originated from or came from. I clearly wasn’t aware of it. Jared’s fine. He’s a big part of this. Those kind of things happen. People call. He’s not the only person that people called us about last week. There’s injuries. We’re not to the trading deadline. People have interest in players. This day and age they’ve got more information. If they sense that some players that you have may fit their system, they’re going to call. You either say, ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”

Whether anything progressed far enough for the Rams to offer a yes or no answer is unclear but what is clear is that just because Fisher says a player isn’t available doesn’t mean that’s the case. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford should offer an easy reminder of that.

So while Fisher may publicly say that he doesn’t want to trade Cook, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen if the right offer comes along. That’s actually the part that’s more difficult to discern. Cook has two more years on his contract with a base salary of $7 million in 2016 and $7.1 million in 2017. The Rams would have to take an accelerated cap hit of nearly $2.7 million if they dealt Cook this year to cover the remaining portion of his prorated signing bonus.

Any team that dealt for Cook would not owe any guaranteed money but it’s fair to assume they’d want to keep him longer than one season which would mean doing so at his current price tag or negotiating an extension. Complicating matters further from the Rams’ perspective is a lack of options at tight end with Lance Kendricks recovering from finger surgery.

But a Cook trade could make sense if the Rams get the right offer if only because it seems unlikely that they’ll retain both Cook on his current contract and re-sign pending unrestricted free agent Cory Harkey, who is a favorite of the coaching staff.

For his part, Cook said he didn’t bat an eyelash when he was informed of the trade rumors over the weekend, nor did he get a call from the Rams or his agent on the subject.

“If there was something I needed to know, they would have told me,” Cook said. “There’s a lot of people that put things out there that really isn’t credible a lot of the times, everywhere around the world. It’s your choice to pay attention to it, it’s your choice to take in what they are saying or it’s your choice to ignore it.”

Cook clearly took the latter option over the bye week with more important things to worry about. Since signing the lucrative five-year contract that brought him to St. Louis in 2013, the Rams offense and his role in it has changed dramatically. Originally signed to be essentially an oversized slot receiver in a wide-open passing attack, Cook has re-adjusted to a scheme that now asks him to attach to the line and run block on a more regular basis.

The blocking is still a work in progress for Cook but he’s quietly drawn plaudits from the coaching staff for his improvement in that area. His performance against Green Bay offered perhaps his best run blocking effort yet. For what it’s worth, he earned a +1.6 run blocking grade from Pro Football Focus for his work against the Packers.

Despite the changing roles, Cook said he’s not upset about what the Rams are asking him to do.

“You’re not about to go to your job and tell your boss this is what you want to do, this is how you have to do it,” Cook said. “No, you are about to do what they ask you to do and what this team needs. I’m here for what this team needs. If they need me to run block right now, I’m happy to do that.”

The Rams could also use a more consistent pass-catcher in addition to the run blocking. Pro Football Focus credits Cook with four drops on the season and he’s also lost on some 50/50 balls that he could have hauled in. The drops have been more bothersome because of their timing, as most would have gone for a first down or a touchdown.

For the season, Cook has 15 catches for 169 yards, which ranks second on the team in both categories. Asked if he’d like to get the ball more or if getting him involved earlier would increase his production, Cook again made it clear he’s not fretting about his role.

“It’s making me become a tight end overall which is improving my game so I have nothing to complain about,” Cook said. “It’s different but that’s what my job entails. I’m not a very selfish person. I just come to work doing my job and doing what they ask me to. So if they ask me to block a little bit more, that’s what I’m here to do.”[