Brandin Cooks Trade Reaction

Brandin Cooks has found his way onto his fourth team in a matter of five years with the latest Houston deal in the NFL.

The Houston Texans continued their offseason trading frenzy by sending the No.57 overall selection to the Los Angeles Rams for Cooks and a fourth-round pick in 2022. Bill O’Brien has essentially traded DeAndre Hopkins for Brandin Cooks and David Johnson with his last two moves this NFL offseason.

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What does this trade mean for those of you with Cooks or Watson?

Brandin Cooks

Cooks has had four 1,000 yard receiving seasons with three different teams in his six-year NFL career. It seems as though he continues to travel around the league for a first or a second-rounder and it doesn’t take much time for Cooks to get utilized wherever he goes. I am sure Bill O’Brien wants to prove everyone wrong with the decisions he has made this offseason and therefore will showcase Cooks throughout the 2020 season.

At first glance, the move makes little sense for the Texans offense; they already have a deep threat on the team. Will Fuller and Kenny Stills have never had a clean bill of health, and Cooks has suffered five concussions in his career. The community remembers Cooks for exiting Super Bowl LII with a concussion which was a huge injury at the time. Nonetheless the label of injury-prone has been tagged to him wherever he goes, and aside from head injuries, Cooks has been healthy during his time in the league. Concussions are a tricky thing and we have seen many players leave the league early in order to protect their health. I would like to believe that teams wouldn’t continue to trade for Cooks if they didn’t believe he was a missing piece of the puzzle. However, this is Bill O’Brien making moves, and I’m sure we can all agree either he will be thought of as a genius or, will be looking for a new job at the conclusion of next season.

We have seen what the starting wide receiver for the Houston Texans is capable of, but Cooks is no Hopkins and we should expect nowhere near the totals that Hopkins was able to produce. Below are stats from when Brandin Cooks entered the league from 2014 to 2019.                                                         

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You can confirm from the chart above that Cooks is a boom or bust type of wide receiver who doesn’t stand out in a crowded WR room, but complements it by offering a deep threat. The silver lining for Cooks owners is that his fellow wideouts rarely stay on the field and he will be the primary target for DeShaun Watson moving forward assuming he stays healthy himself. 

With Tim Kelly calling the plays in Houston we may see a slight shift towards stretching defenders downfield with Cooks and Fuller, while thriving underneath with David Johnson, Stills, and the TE group. Watson has the ability to take off if needed and if all remain healthy we may see what they are trying to accomplish. 

Is this an absolute perfect fit for Cooks? Probably not, and we will see him move on to another team more than likely before his career is over. Yet Cooks is talented, and wouldn’t have been valued by so many franchises if it weren’t for his ability to produce on the field for the majority of his time in the NFL. 

Don’t sleep on Cooks simply because of the dysfunction that is the Houston Texans. Odds are in his favor that he does what he always has for your team by putting up over a thousand yards for his new team with consistency. Buy him for cheap and gain some depth for your dynasty wideout group, but don’t expect him to shine every week.

DeShaun Watson

Watson’s fantasy outlook without DeAndre Hopkins was bleak. With the fill-in of Brandin Cooks, I cannot say it’s back to where it was, but has at least improved. Thankfully Watson has always had a safe rushing floor to keep his point totals up. This move doesn’t hurt Watson’s value but one thing is for sure, this team doesn’t have the energy it did a couple years ago.

Cooks coming into the receiver room for Houston gives Watson some depth at WR but it seems as if he isn’t happy with what the team is doing either, and trade rumors are starting to buzz for Watson as well. Perhaps Houston’s hope is for Cooks to bridge the WR position for an upcoming drafted rookie wideout? It seems unlikely since they don’t pick until the 90th selection and have many needs elsewhere. Rumors were that the Texans would select a WR in the second round of this year’s draft but after this trade, they will certainly focus on other areas. Houston only ranked 27th in pass protection and until that gets better Watson and Co. will not reach their full potential.

Watson has been a fantasy force since his debut in the league mainly due to his rushing totals. He is safe for fantasy but if you look at last year’s passing totals he didn’t surpass 4,000 yards or 26 touchdowns. I don’t expect Cooks and Johnson to boost those totals if they weren’t any better with DeAndre Hopkins on the team.  

Los Angeles Rams

The Rams are taking care of the money situation they have found themselves in with Gurley, Cooks, and Goff all being expensive for the franchise. By letting Gurley go and trading Cooks away, the Rams now have the ability to pay Goff and continue to build around him. 

For those of you with Kupp or Woods, I believe it will more so stabilize their value than adding to it. Cooks only received 72 targets last year while the other two wideouts had over 130 each. Already ranking 9th and 14th in total targets last season there isn’t too much room for Woods and Kupp to increase. 

The main beneficiary to this trade I believe is Josh Reynolds if the Rams choose not to spend their newly acquired draft pick on a wide receiver. Reynolds and Cooks both averaged over 13.9 yards per reception and offered a deep presence for the offense. Reynolds has a similar skill set and should slide into the role allowing the offense to operate as normal. If Reynolds does perform as the WR3 for this team expect him to be no more than a flex option, which is a better outlook than it was before.

Last season we witnessed a shift in Sean Mcvay’s offense when he seemingly found his TE target for the future in Tyler Higbee. Higbee was reliable offering a 77.5% catch rate on targets thrown to him, and it looked like Goff and him connected well. Over the last five games of the season, Higbee averaged 8.5 catches and over 100 yards per game. This did come with Everett injuring himself and taking a backseat role upon return, but we more than likely saw what the Rams offensive plan was moving forward. 

Takeaway

The Texans will either find themselves able to replace Hopkins with the volume of Cooks and David Johnson or will more than likely find themselves missing the elite WR they traded away. Cooks has never separated himself from his peers in the past, and things don’t point towards him changing the script in Houston. DeShaun Watson will continue to suffer under Bill O’Brien’s tenure, but at least it isn’t as bad with Will Fuller leading the WR charge and more so a crowded room of options at his disposal. The Rams are trying to recover from their Super Bowl push and the cap space headache they created for themselves, but with this move they solidified your fantasy options residing on the roster. Hopefully, we haven’t seen the last of Bill O’Brien’s trade frenzy as it does make things interesting during the quiet part of the offseason. 

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me @DFF_mattbull on Twitter to discuss all your dynasty football concerns and make sure to follow for dynasty updates and news from @DFF_Dynasty.