I can't hitch my wagon to a 26 year old chirping about needing some down time after winning the SB.
Yeah, this.
I mean, he's just not a producer. 6 seasons in the NFL (3 playing for the Bills and then the last 3 playing for prolific offenses in KC with Mahomes and with McVay's Rams) and his best seasons were with the Bills. He played better for worse teams with worse offenses and worse passers.
It's telling to me that when these other good offenses got their hands on him, they knew they didn't have that much use for him and, like the Bills, were fine moving on from him quickly.
Only 1 thousand-yard season in a 6-year career. In today's NFL, that's pitiful stuff for a guy who was supposed to be a serous starter. And his yards-per-catch has gone down lately, so he's not even the weapon he was at one time.
So if the idea is that we should sign Watkins to play for half of what Cooper will cost, that's a dumb idea. A rookie WR drafted in the 2nd through 4th rounds could match the production Watkins gives while playing for peanuts.
I think kicking Cooper to the curb after spending a 1st rounder on him when he's still in his mid-20's and when he clicks nicely with our QB is profoundly stupid and wasteful. But if we make that mistake, let's not try to stop the bleeding by paying Watkins 5-10 times as much as a generic replacement would, just because Watkins is a bigger name who was drafted in the top 5 once upon a time. If we're gonna be cheap, let's be cheap and slide Gallup into Cooper's spot and replace Gallup with a mid-round rookie (who, let's be honest, will quite likely be better than Watkins anyway).