You would think you'd want as much talent around your rookie quarterback, but Kellen Moore and the New Orleans Saints have stripped down the talent around Tyler Shough. Two weeks after trading Rashid Shaheed, the Saints are releasing Brandin Cooks (the final logistics are still being figured out.) Basically, it's just Chris Olave out there for Shough.
Cooks signed with the Saints this offseason, and it never really felt right. It didn't feel like the team and player were in similar stages at the moment. That's why he was quickly thrown as a trade option by national media. When he wasn't traded though, the expectation was Cooks would see the season through.
That was not the case. The Saints and Cooks are parting ways a week after the deadline. You wish you could have gotten compensation for him, but clearly the divorce was inevitable.
Rashid Shaheed was replaceable for Tyler Shough. Brandin Cooks will be much harder
On the surface that sounds backwards. Shaheed is clearly the better player and the more targeted receiver. That’s true but he also had a much clearer replacement than Cooks does. Olave quickly took over as the deep threat Shough needed. Olave wanted this role, and he has the skillset to excel at it.
For Cooks, his benefit isn’t about target and catches. He was the elder statesmen in the receiving corps, and his mentorship extended to Shough. The quarterback reacted to the release during his media availability this week. “It sucks. It’s really hard, especially because I was really close to Brandin, as far as who he was off the field. He was probably one of my biggest mentors, at least throughout this point.”
Shough points to Cooks’ leadership and the comfortability that he had built with the veteran. It’s not on field production, so Shough and Cooks organizing offseason passing sessions will fly under the radar. The trust is difficult to replace.
Shough doesn’t have a lot of options, and he lost one he of the ones he was comfortable with. It may sound like a criticism of the move. It’s not, but the move has ramifications. The responsibility now turns to Shough to overcome those ramifications