Los Angeles Rams: Jared Goff, Brandin Cooks connection living up to hype so far

The Los Angeles Rams have high expectations for Jared Goff and Brandin Cooks establishing the necessary connection in 2018.

After struggling for the most part as a rookie, the Los Angeles Rams made it one of their top priorities to build a better offense around Jared Goff in 2017 since they wanted to get the best from the former top overall pick.

As frustrating as it was to see Goff fail to win a single game during his rookie campaign in seven attempts, the California product deserved some benefit of the doubt since the Rams didn’t exactly do the best job providing him with the proper offense.

From a poor offensive line to a weak receiving corps, it was easy to see why Goff struggled the way he did for Los Angeles as a rookie. But thanks to the hiring of Sean McVay that resulted in both of these areas improving, Goff and the Rams ended up being one of the biggest surprises last season after winning the NFC West title.

In fact, Los Angeles ended up making NFL history last season by becoming the first team to ever go from worst to first in scoring, showing there was major improvement on the offensive side of the football.

Sammy Watkins, who was acquired last August in a trade with the Buffalo Bills, may no longer be part of the picture after signing with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency, but the Rams still made out pretty well with his replacement after landing Brandin Cooks through a trade in April.

Despite feeling comfortable with the fact that Watkins’ absence would just result in another player like Josh Reynolds stepping up, acquiring Cooks to play alongside players like Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp will take this offense to a whole new level. Not to mention, Goff was already fortunate enough to have the runner up to the MVP award in Todd Gurley in the backfield, meaning this offense is absolutely stacked for the Rams.

One of the main differences between this year and last summer is the timing of the trade to land Cooks since Watkins was at a major disadvantage coming over in August since he had to play catch up. Since Cooks came on board the speedy wideout has been able to work with Goff and the rest of his teammates wide receiver over the last couple of months to help adjust to playing in McVay’s offense.

Heading into training camp, one of the biggest factors Los Angeles wanted to see was quick chemistry between Goff and his new receiver in Cooks. It’s only been a few days, but as ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry recently pointed out, these two have been looking impressive so far in training camp.

They still have a long way to go, but just thinking about the potential surrounding this new duo will put a smile on the face of any Rams fan since Goff and Cooks will hopefully cause all sorts of problems for opponents. Even more exciting, after rewarding Cooks with a hefty extension before camp, Goff is going to enjoy having him around for years to come.