Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rams paid Brandin Cooks $40.459 million for two years

_tqXsMuILjP9
With the Rams seemingly stiffing Todd Gurley and Clay Matthews on payments, Mike Florio and Chris Simms wonder what could be going on with the franchise.

Add Brandin Cooks to the list of recent contracts for which Kevin Demoff would like a Mulligan.

The Rams paid way too much to running back Todd Gurley in 2018 and way too much to quarterback Jared Goff in 2019. They’ve rectified (and admitted) a third mistake on Thursday, sending receiver Brandin Cooks and a 2022 fourth-round pick to the Texans for a 2020 second-round selection.

But the mistake was still costly. Based on the breakdown posted at PFT after the Cooks deal was signed, the Rams paid Cooks more than $40.4 million for two seasons of football.

From a $7 million signing bonus to a $4 million base salary in 2018 to a $9.459 million roster bonus in 2019 to a $16 million past salary in 2019 to a $4 million roster bonus in March 2020, that’s $40.459 million for two seasons -- an average of $20.22 million per year.

For that investment, the Rams got 1,204 receiving yards in 2018 but only 583 in 2019. He also suffered a concussion in 2019, his fourth since Super Bowl LII, with the Patriots.