Brandin Cooks News

The Houston Texans have traded wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Dallas Cowboys, Ian Rapoport reports. The Texans will receive a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft as well as a sixth-round pick in 2024 for Cooks, who had expressed a desire to be traded partway through the 2022 NFL season. The Cowboys were shorthanded for playmakers behind CeeDee Lamb last season (especially after dealing Amari Cooper to the Browns), so Cooks should be able to make an impact in Dallas right away. Cooks' 699 yards were his third-fewest in a season across his nine years in the league, but they were still more than enough to lead the Texans' anemic passing offense in 2022. The former first-round pick will turn 30 before the start of the 2023 season, but has been one of the league's most consistent and productive receivers throughout his career and has yet to show any real signs of slowing down. His presence should add an explosive element to the Cowboys' offense.

Cooks, who is coming off a 2022 season in which he caught 57 passes (on 93 targets) for 699 yards and three TDs in 13 games for Houston, will bolster a Dallas wideout corps that also features returnees CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup. Since being drafted by the Saints in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft, Cooks -- who turns 30 in September -- has been traded four times. With the Cowboys, the 5-foot-10 183-pounder's speed and experience should be an asset to a pass-catching corps that will continue to be highlighted by Lamb, and if Cooks is able to stay healthy in 2023, an uptick in production is a plausible outcome while working in an offense helmed by QB Dak Prescott.

Cooks reiterated his desire to play for a team with a chance to compete for a championship, which is unlikely to happen any time soon in Houston. This should not come as a surprise, as Cooks expressed displeasure when he wasn't moved at the trade deadline. He has a massive cap hit in the final two years of his deal, so Houston will likely have to eat a portion of his salary in order to move him. That was an obstacle the Texans ran into at the deadline.

If Sunday was indeed Cooks' swan song in Houston, he went out with a flourish. The veteran wideout led the Texans in receptions and receiving yards on the afternoon, and he had a key 30-yard grab on Houston's wild game-winning drive. Despite a somewhat tumultuous season that saw Cooks express his displeasure with not being traded to a contender at the deadline, the nine-year veteran posted a 57-699-3 line across 13 games despite the team's shaky quarterback situation. Cooks has a massive cap hit of over $26 million for 2023, so if he's indeed moving on as appears very likely, he's made a solid case heading into free agency.

Cooks remains one of the league's better receivers in real life, but in fantasy football his impact is dulled by Houston's consistently poor quarterback play. The Texans attempted 44 passes Sunday but produced just 193 yards passing, and it's not easy for any receiver to thrive in circumstances like those. Cooks will hope to finish strong against Indianapolis in Week 18.

Cooks made an appearance on Thursday's practice report as a DNP due to personal reasons, but it won't stop him from being available for Week 17 action. He'll be facing a Jacksonville defense Sunday that contained him to four catches (on six targets) for a season-low 20 yards back in Week 5.