Brandin Cooks with Cowboys could mean trouble for NFL
Brandin Cooks is now a Cowboy, meaning Dallas gets a No. 1 receiver to fill their No. 2 role. The numbers look good, but will they add up to Super Bowl LVIII?
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Dallas will send a 2023 fifth-round pick and a 2024 sixth-round pick to Houston in exchange for the veteran wideout. New Orleans took Cooks with the twentieth pick in 2014. Since then he’s been with three other teams including the Patriots and Rams.
Players with Cook’s numbers typically don’t bounce around like that. Since he joined the league, only six receivers have more yardage. For his career, he has 630 catches for 8,616 yards and 49 touchdowns. In nine years he has six seasons with more than 1,000 yards receiving.
Even with nine touchdowns and 1,359 yards from CeeDee Lamb in 2022, the Cowboy’s passing game could do no better than 14th-overall. The team expected more from Michael Gallup after letting Amari Cooper go to Cleveland, but the fifth-year receiver put up a career-low 424 yards in 14 games.
The Cooks upgrade won’t be cheap. His $18 million base salary ranks fourth among wide receivers but according to Pro Football Talk, the Texans will pay $6 million of his $18 million base salary. Gallup just agreed to restructure his contract as well, meaning he’ll make just $1.6 million in base salary in 2023.
In 2022, the Philadelphia Eagles showed the NFC East how important a No. 2 receiver can be. A.J. Brown’s 1,496 yards were fourth-most in the NFL while DeVonta Smith finished ninth with 1,196. Now Dallas has a tandem to compete with any team.
Last year, Cooks wanted to be traded so badly he sat out a game when he wasn’t. He should be happy now. Sometimes the No. 2 option works out for the best.
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