After winning their fifth Super Bowl in the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era, many insiders and fans alike expected the Patriots to take the same offseason approach that has led to such success. That measured, precise, unwavering approach has often led to a conservative offseason haul in terms of acquiring top end talent. In 2017, that has only been partly consistent. Though I have no doubt Belichick and the Patriots have been no less diligent in their evaluations, there has been a concerted effort to become more talented on both sides of the ball. Acquisitions of Stephon Gilmore, Kony Ealy and Dwayne Allen have all been part of an obvious effort to acquire young, talented players. Oh and there's that guy named Brandin Cooks. Did I forget about him? Perhaps the most exciting and explosive newcomer to the 2017 Patriots joins a position group that is already laden with productive and reliable players. Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell, and Danny Amendola is a more than viable group of receivers and that doesn't even include other receiving threats in Rob Gronkowski, James White and Dion Lewis. With that many options, and only one football to go around, how can the Patriots and Cooks make the most of this marriage? Lets go to the tape!

Before we get to what Cooks does, we must first understand the basic scheme and philosophy of the Patriots offense. The Patriots offense is run from an Erhardt-Perkins system, meaning they do not call routes by number or by name but by concept. This is imperative to their success because it allows for incredible versatility with formation and personnel. The pass plays will consist of (basically) a formation, motion, protection denoted by a number, then the route concept(s). For example, here is a play from the 2004 Patriots playbook fully drawn up. As you can see, the same exact play is run, with the same concept name every time. At all times in "Y Hook" the outside-most receiver will run a Go, the second receiver in will run a Diagonal and the third receiver in will run a Hook. On the backside the outside-most, or "number 1", will run a slant accompanied by another slant by the next inside receiver, or "number 2". Knowing this, the Patriots can call any concept from any formation, and as long as the receiver can count from the sidelines in, he will know what route to run. This is shown further by the concept "Y Hook Tosser" being drawn up out of an empty set in one illustration and then also drawn up out of a Slot Closed formation. This particular play is a staple of the Patriots offense and you will see it run multiple times every week. Personnel and formation versatility at its finest.

Now that we understand how the Patriots call their plays, lets delve into their approach in game. The Patriots have prided themselves on creating matchup problems in the passing game. Whether it is getting Julian Edelman isolated on a much less nimble linebacker or splitting Rob Gronkowski wide to get him in space against either a linebacker or safety, the Patriots are all about finding mismatches. The other element this adds is it forces the defense to reveal the fundamentals of the coverage they are employing, either man or zone. When you give Tom Brady a sneak peek at your defense before the ball is even snapped, he will be able to find his most advantageous physical matchup against man or his best conceptual read against zone. Here is another example of a staple play from the Patriots (credit to Matt Bowen at ESPN who does tremendous work), commonly referred to as "stick". This is a play the Patriots will often check to when they see man coverage. The alignment of the Z receiver allows for a free release often resulting in a quick gain. If Brady feels the slant/flat concept is more viable, he will then work that progression.

Let's now examine what Cooks does well. The four traits of Cooks game we will examine are speed, agility, RAC ability and ball skills. The most heavily emphasized piece of his game is his ability to threaten a defense with his pure speed. Cooks does a fantastic job of using his speed to make plays evidenced by his 98 yard touchdown against the Raiders in week 1 of 2016. Cooks does a good job with a hop release to create space to the sideline and then proceeds to simply outrun the Raiders' Sean Smith and Reggie Nelson. This is something very few players in the NFL have the ability to do. The next piece of Cooks' game we will examine is his ability to create yards after the catch. Cooks uses his speed and agility to win off the line of scrimmage against Tyrann Matheiu of the Cardinals and proceeds to take a 5 yards cross all the way to the endzone for a 45 yard touchdown. Furthermore, Cooks is quite good at running crisp routes and understanding where he should break based on the leverage of the defender. Though he was not tasked with running a plethora of short, quick breaking routes, Cooks is good at breaking sharply and in rhythm with the quarterback, as evidenced by this play against Tampa Bay. Cooks begins in the left slot and comes bursting off the line.

He gains leverage on the defender and breaks sharply to the sideline, creating plenty of seperation. The final component of Cooks' game we will highlight is his ball skills. Cooks does a fantastic job of catching the ball with his hands and plucking the ball out of the air. In week 8 against the Seattle Seahawks, Cooks runs a route down the left sideline and breaks back for the ball. He sees the ball flying above his head and does a fantastic job of leaping and plucking the ball out of the air while simultaneously taking a hit.

Now we can begin to carve out Cooks' role in the Patriots passing game. Despite being a truly talented group of receivers, no one on the Patriots possesses the combination of speed, agility, ball skills and RAC ability that Cooks brings to the table. Agility and RAC are prerequisites for being a Patriots WR, the ball skills and pure speed are what make Cooks such an exciting acquisition. The Patriots have a philosphy of focusing on what a player can do as opposed to what they cannot do, and this will not change in regards to Cooks. With his speed, agaility, and ability to create after the catch, New England will almost certainly use Cooks to threaten the defense vertically and horizontally. With his ability to threaten the defense as a vertical receiver, most would expect Cooks to line up split wide almost exclusively. However, this is not how I envision the Patriots employing him. When the Patriots decide to go to with a spread look I would expect Cooks to be aligned primarily in the slot. This will allow him to run virtually any route in the playbook, from the go or "9" route to the speed out. This will also make it difficult to defend Cooks with more than one player, allowing him to work against a teams nickel corner or safety one on one. That is a matchup the Patriots will take over and over again. Here is another staple play from the Patriots playbook.

This is a fromation and play New England loves and for good reason. Cooks would be able to do a tremendous amount of damage lined up at the "W" position as he would be able to outrun the majority of corners one on one from this position. If the defense plays a 2 high defense to help eliminate the vertical threats, Bradys will simply take his best matchup and pick your defense apart. This illustration does not even begin to touch on the multitude of other routes Cooks can run from just this one position. The amount of route versatility Cooks brings to the Patriots offense is tantilizing.

A piece of every offensive arsenal is play action passing. For play action to work a team must have a receiver who can win vertically and at the catch point. For years after the departure of Randy Moss, the Patriots struggled to find that player, cycling through the likes of Brandon Lloyd, Aaron Dobson and Brandon Lafell. Cooks will give the Patriots just that player. Despite being relatively short, Cooks does a fantastic job of wining at the catch point and winning vertically on play action passes as evidenced by his tremendous touchdown against the Patriots in week 2 of the 2016 preseason.

The final component, and what I feel will be the most creative part of New England's 2017 use of Cooks is their ability to manufacture touches for him in space. New England already does this to a certain extent with Edelman and Gronkowski. Edelman will often be brought in motion to give him a free release, then sent flying across the middle while another receiver "picks" the defender assigned to him. An even better example of this is the way in which the Pittsburgh Steelers use Antonio Brown. Here is yet another staple plays from the Patriots. In this formation, Cooks would be aligned at the "W" position, and would cross the formation post snap to catch a pass from Brady with a full head of steam.

Brandin Cooks is a tremendous talent. The Patriots acquired him with a very specific role in mind, and one that is slated to be quite prominent due to their relinquishing of a first and third round pick to be able to acquire him. The versatility of Cooks' game to be able to go from running routes from the slot in spread sets to running vertical routes in big personnel play action passes will have Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels salivating as Cooks fits perfectly with the ever changing and matchup based offense the Patriots run. New England does not make moves this large without a very specific role in mind, and with Cooks' tremendous skillset, the Patriots offense is primed to be as explosive, versatile and efficient as it has ever been. On to 2017.