So Cooks is not as good as Woods or Kupp? That makes sense. Why does Billy Oh think Cooks is an adequate replacement for Hopkins? Because Hopkins is better than Woods or Kupp.
At face value, I would say Cooks is better then Woods and on par with Kupp, but all three are different players with different skill sets. My point isn't based purely on talent alone. Goff clearly used Kupp as his security blanket, which he also did before Kupp went on IR early in the Rams superbowl run. Additionally, the Rams oline had protection issues, which hindered their ability to stretch the field with Cooks. A less effective run game didn't help either. Hince why the Rams offence transitioned to more short to intermediate pass plays.
In 2018, McVay would make the pre-snap reads for Goff and relay it to him prior to the 15 seconds play clock radio cutout. Defensive coordinators got wise to this last year and would shift coverages after McVays radio was cut. Another reason why the Rams passing attack regressed. Goff is simply a flawed NFL QB. Just like Cook, his 2019 stats are far less impressive then 2018.
I don't think O'Brien, nor anybody for that matter believes Cooks is an adequate replacement for Hopkins. I hated the Hopkins trade. I'm okay with Cooks trade. I much preferred to have Hopkins over Cooks, David Johnson, and a marginal improvement in draft picks. As others have said, there's got to be more than money when it came to Hopkins. Was he really going to sit out with three years left on his contract? We can only hope there's a method to the madness. O'Brien isn't an actual stupid person, foolish and arrogant, but not stupid.
If I had to guess, Hopkins had too much influence and O'Brien didnt like it. Either he felt threatened or was actually being undermined. At the end of the day Hopkins is gone and I'm still not a fan of O'Brien, even less so now. That said, he's clearly adapting the offensive scheme to stretch the field with speedy WRs. It'll be interesting to see how the RBs factor into the short passing game. I dont think the Texans know what they have in David Johnson. Maybe they'll put David and Duke on the field at the same time and cause matchup issues.