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New England Patriots: Building chemistry is an OTA storyline to watch

By Nick Ziegler

Oct 30, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks (10) runs past Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cassius Marsh (91) during the fourth quarter of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints defeated the Seahawks 25-20. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks (10) runs past Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cassius Marsh (91) during the fourth quarter of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The Saints defeated the Seahawks 25-20. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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The New England Patriots will be beginning their OTA’s on Monday. What is one of the biggest storylines to watch?

After winning the Super Bowl just a few months ago, the New England Patriots will be back on the field soon to attempt to repeat as champions.

This offseason has been a fairly good one for New England. Despite having a lot of key free agents on the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots used trades and free agency to help them create a solid roster.

Even though the Patriots had one of the best offenses in the NFL last season, the unit could be even better in 2017. One of the shocking moves for the Patriots this offseason was the trade that acquired Brandin Cooks.

After shipping their first round pick in a package to acquire Cooks, the Patriots will be getting a dynamic wide receiver. Cooks has been extremely good for the New Orleans Saints the past three seasons. On one of the best offenses in the league, Cooks had excellent chemistry with another great quarterback in Drew Brees.

With voluntary OTA’s starting on Monday, seeing how Cooks and Brady develop chemistry will be one of the early storylines to watch according to Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.

"The Patriots are loaded at wide receiver with the addition of speedy Brandin Cooks, who joins an already solid depth chart of Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell and Danny Amendola. When watching an OTA, it is commonplace to hear quarterback Tom Brady talking to his pass-catchers about how precise he likes routes to be run as the work begins to develop a foundation to take into training camp. Cooks, in particular, will be one to watch."

The OTA’s won’t be open to the media until Thursday. However, the team will be able to get in some good work this week in their drills. With no pads, it will certainly be fun to watch players like Cooks go up against Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore in practice.

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As one of the most talented wide receivers Brady has ever played with, building chemistry with Cooks will be important. However, he should be able to make it a priority in the offseason to get used to throwing to his new weapon.

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