Michael Thomas deal reminds Rams again they made right call with Brandin Cooks

With Michael Thomas becoming the highest-paid receiver in the league from the New Orleans Saints, the Los Angeles Rams were reminded once again they were wise to take care of Brandin Cooks last year.

As exciting as it was to watch the Los Angeles Rams acquire Brandin Cooks from the New England Patriots last offseason, there was some criticism over the team rewarding him with a hefty five-year extension early on.

The fact that Los Angeles was willing to pay a receiver like Cooks who had yet to play a single game a whopping five-year, $81 million extension seemed like a questionable move, but also shows how confident they were in the speedster.

Determining whether this was the right move after only one season is foolish for obvious reasons, but after hauling in 80 passes during the 2018 season for 1,204 yards, and six total touchdowns (one was rushing), Cooks clearly seems like a good fit for the Rams.

Moving forward, Los Angeles has plenty of reasons to be excited over Cooks continuing to make a serious impact on offense now that he has a year of playing experience with the team under his belt.

And while there are still some questions over whether the Rams jumped the gun on a deal for Cooks, at least they avoided the wideout potentially asking for even more money down the road after seeing the latest deal by Michael Thomas.

For most of the offseason, one of the biggest topics of discussion surrounding the New Orleans Saints was whether the team would give in, and make Thomas the highest-paid receiver in the league.

On Wednesday, the Saints made NFL history by rewarding Thomas with a hefty five-year extension worth $100 million to make sure the wideout remains happy for the long run.

First off, let the record show that Thomas is on a completely different level than Cooks since the 321 catches over the last three seasons alone make a strong enough case for him to be considered a top-five receiver in the league.

Still, it’s quite common in the NFL to see players use situations like this as leverage to earn new deals, and while there’s no telling if Cooks would have been one of those players, at least this won’t even be an issue for the Rams.

Since other receivers across the league will most likely use Thomas’ deal to help negotiate their next contract, at least Cooks and the Rams can focus on the most important task at the moment, which is earning another trip to the Super Bowl.

If last year is any indication of what 2019 could have in store for Cooks, Los Angeles should see another strong season from their speedy wideout to help the offense continue to be one of the best in the league.