led them to their first Super Bowl victory. Since
the greatest show offs in Turf in 1999,
22 years later. They are the Champs and they are keeping
everyone. Happy from Matthew Stafford
to Aaron Donald. And now to Super Bowl, 50, 6 MVP
asterisk Cooper cup because it should have been Aaron Donald
sorry. Cooper, cooper knows it too, Cooper knows. It would
have been obj and it should have been
Aaron Donald but he's the one with the trophy and whatever
else you get to be the Super Bowl MVP. And he now has
the contract three-year 80 million dollar extension. I still
haven't seen the full breakdown. We'll see. We'll see
what it really is because he wasn't
according to him,
trying to break the bank. Set a new bar
reset, the market
will see, they didn't do for him with a different Donald
prayer and Donald they tore up the three remaining years
and Gave him a three-year deal to replace it at a 40 million
dollar raised with cup. It's more like a standard deal.
They've extended him.
I'm waiting to see the full details to really get into
exactly what he's going to get, or what, he's not going to get
in comparison to some of the other top receivers because he
said himself again. Yeah, he wasn't aspiring to beat them or
match them,
right? Yeah. I mean you're right and,
you know, I don't expect it to be anything record-breaking.
I mean that number itself, three years, 80 million, you know,
there was a ports out there. That was maybe we could be what
five years 120 which I don't know. That confused me
either way the three years 80 million and it's a good chunk
of change for a guy who
we know is in the conversation for top receivers in football.
You know, I'll say this. I mean, Aaron Donald. You get
paid that contract because you're like, your arguably,
the best team as a player and football,
as we talked about
your probably, the best player in the history of the franchise
and in the conversation for the greatest defensive player ever.
Perk up even though in the conversation for top receivers
in football. This was the first year that we talked about him
being that type of and that Elite category. Who is he? A
top-five guy?
Whoa his name, let's throw it around there with the Debo
Samuels and Jamar chases and Davante Adams of the world. So
this is the first year. He's come on the scene like that as
far as being in the conversation there
and I think this is the right spot, The Sweet Spot as far as
the money is concerned and what makes sense for. Him and
the Rams. And you know, it seems just right really it does
his progression went from
being the number two guy behind Robert Wood right to being
1A and 1B to last year, really taking over the point. Where
early in the season there was some consternation from Robert
Woods.
There was some comments about that, Sean McVeigh
did his best glass half full routine to make it look like
Robert Woods, wasn't upset and then I think it was
the Thursday night. I'm against the Seahawks.
They started, force-feeding Woods. The ball to placate my
old band, that all continued until Woods. Tore, his ACL in
practice on the same day that Odell Beckham, signed his
contract and
that, that issue ended. And then he was traded after
the season of the Titans, but cup took over the receiver room
last year, one week, at a time.
And ultimately what we saw is a season, it was on par with
Calvin Johnson in 2012, even though that extra game.
Helped him pump up catches in yards. It was still one of
the great seasons in NFL history for a receiver. And yeah, it
was and then as we discussed yesterday, or maybe it was
the day before
there is an importance to the offense, you know, the the all
the option and jerk Rosen, the thing that hey the coaches.
Hey, we need that one receiver. We could trust
Cooper cups that guy, let alone,
he developed a special connection with Matthew
Stafford. And I think that's probably another reason you can
probably look at it and go. That's, you know, I think they
found the sweet spot. He doesn't need or deserve and,
you know, to be the top paid receiver in football.
Let's see. A little bit more.
He was really good. We know that Matthew Stafford and that
combination, certainly helped him out and took him to another
level and took their whole offense to another level. We
see the
more of the talents of McVeigh and his ability to call more
aggressive down the field passing plays, and we got to
see all that Cooper cup had the deliver. Because
Again, no disrespect to Jared Goff. He just had a quarterback
in Matthew Stafford. Who can do everything and it just opened
up the field, The Playbook and everything in that way. And we
got to really see what Cooper cups all about. And
hey, I mean, I don't know what you feel, Mike. I don't know if
I look at him as going, he's a top two or three receiver, but
I think he's in that top five conversation for some certainly
top 8 in there, somewhere in there, but hell of a player
and very important to what they do on that side of the ball.
The question that I think is becoming One more relevant to
the receiver position is if you remove the guy who currently
that's right, are in that system.
How hard would it be to replace him? What would the drop-off be
a good way to do it to Alan Robinson. If for some reason
Cooper cup wasn't available to play this year. I'm not going
to put the Jinx on and by saying
because he's injured but for some reason if Cooper cup
wasn't available to play
does Alan Robinson become cooper cooper. There are other
guys out there that you can find. Can you draft somebody to
become your
Next Cooper cup, how special is the skill set in relation to
how hard will it be to replace the skill set with someone
else? So I think that's why the Titans traded AJ Brown. Yeah,
here they thought will get
will get trim on Burks and he'll come in and he'll get it
done and
we'll see it's the great experiment that may go a long
way toward convincing other teams that that
when the time comes to give the huge money
to a receiver,
the car. Just dollar for dollar
for the next guy on the depth chart. The next guy you go find
draft trade, free agent. Whatever. Is it
more sensible to do that. We know that that's how teams view
their players. They are all interchangeable parts in
a machine. They eventually will be changed out for other parts.
It's just a question of when
how many years until we have to change this part for
a replacement. How much does this part cost? How much will
the next part cost? That's how they view it.
I don't like it because It dehumanizes, the players, but
that's what they do in the broader structure of a football
team, the players become
jigsaw puzzle pieces. And so the Rams decide to keep Cooper
cup, reward Cooper cup and it gets back to what we said, two
days ago. Chris, it's
fine.
As long as you have
players that you can count on to replace your high-priced
players.
Any of them.
And not just
the high price Players other starters.
It doesn't just have to be are in Donald Jalen Ramsey Cooper
cup Matthew Stafford, getting injured. And then all next man
up, right? Is a guy, who was a sixth-round rookie. It's any of
your starters because you can't afford to have a middle class,
that is receiving anything more than the minimum salary for 123
years in the league
because all those back up positions.
And I haven't done a full dive into the Rams roster, but
I would suspect that at most of the positions,
other than starter. It's a bunch of guys where you're
like, I don't know if he's got guys in German. I don't know.
Right? Sure. Yeah. No, I know, you're exactly right. And
that's, that's what
hey, it's the amazing thing about the Rams, because we've
really been saying this for what three years now. And they
seem to somehow kind of dodged the bullet. And again, I think
that's, I got to give credit to McVeigh there. He seems to have
the right
feel for How hard to push him, practice some workouts,
whatever that combination he's found that. But hey, that's
the game. They're playing, it's high stakes
poker. There's no doubt about it. And yes, I mean
one or two injuries. It doesn't matter where it's at. Its
trouble. We kind of saw that in the Super Bowl a little bit. We
started getting into the no-name territory. Wait, who's
this tight end? Who's this guy? Receive it
by and receiver on here.
So they have like flirted with that. And that's that's where
they Are right now, certainly, but they got some star players.
They play a game where it's just, hey, McVeigh coaches
them, their sound,
we play tough football, and they expecting the big games.
These star players to come through and make big time
plays. And they've done that for the most part especially
last year and Cooper Cup being one of them. And I think you
explained to write with the receiver thing. They got to
find the right balance there of these teams
and Cooper cup. He's got a little bit of that. He's got,
you know, you can't trust anybody to do that job. That's
what I'll say about that. Even though he might not be quite as
physically gifted as a Justin Jefferson or a Jomar Chase
or Debo Samuel where you can just go
line up outside.
Whoever covers you one-on-one. They're screwed over
and you'll win all day long. He's not far from that.
But his value to this scheme and McVeigh I think is really
to your point. That's the part that they probably went. That's
not easy to find this guy. The guy that has
size and strength because Cooper cups a bigger guy.
Quickness, of a Wes Welker a Julian Edelman. Amin and
the smarts of those type of guys as well to be able to read
coverages and never make the wrong Cuts, that's where he
really does have value. And, you know, they had a pony up
some money to make sure he's a part of
that offense.