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The Houston Texans recently traded for wide receiver Brandin Cooks from the Rams. Aaron Schillinger evaluates Cooks' dynasty fantasy football value following this surprising deal to determine if he is a WR worth buying or selling.
If you are a savvy dynasty owner, there's a good chance you may have considered buying low on Brandin Cooks over this off-season. If you're active on Twitter, you might have seen some trades go down involving Cooks. Over the last month or so, I saw several different dynasty owners talk about how they bought him for a 2020 third-round rookie draft pick. If you were someone that was lucky enough to buy him for such a cheap price, good for you.
I've been a firm believer that Cooks is a very underrated dynasty wide receiver and still believe that to be true. Values can change very quickly in dynasty football, and after being sold to the Houston Texans, Cooks' value is seeing a spike once again.
Even if you're not a fan of Cooks, if you bought him for a 2020 third-round pick, you can definitely sell him for higher now, which at the end of the day is what dynasty trades are all about - maximizing on the ups and downs in player value. Let's see where Cooks falls on the scale.
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Pros
The 27-year old wide receiver will enter his seventh season in 2020 and is now on his fourth NFL team with the Texans. To refresh your memory, here are the details of the deal:
Houston Texans get: Brandin Cooks & 2022 fourth-round pick
Los Angeles Rams get: 2020 second-round pick (57 overall)
Cooks has finished with 1,000+ receiving yards in four out of six of his seasons in the NFL. In the seasons that he didn't reach that mark, it was due to the fact he played in just 10 and 14 games. He isn't someone that you start with total confidence each week, but when he's active, he's worth at least a Flex start.
Whether you're a believer in Cooks or not, if you own him there is a nice sell-high window now that he's been traded to Houston. With DeAndre Hopkins out of town and Will Fuller with basically a permanent asterisk next to his name, there's definitely room for opportunity for Cooks to succeed and put up fantasy points. Deshaun Watson is still a young, talented quarterback with plenty of football ahead of him.
Cooks is still fairly young and will turn 27 this coming September. Cooks has also played in 88 of 96 career games in the NFL, which is really good for someone that many consider to be quite injury-prone.
PPR Scoring:
2019: WR61 (14 games)
2018: WR13
2017: WR15
2016: WR10
2015: WR13
2014: WR56 (10 games)
Cons
The biggest con with Cooks and the elephant in the room is his concussions. He's suffered at least five known concussions over his six seasons in the NFL, including two that he suffered within a month of each other, which makes me question whether or not he really cleared concussion protocol with the first one. By comparison, Stefon Diggs has missed eight more games than Cooks since 2015. Obviously, head injuries and strains are totally different things, but it's worth considering in retrospect. Personally, the concussions aren't quite as big of a con as most people might think.
For what it's worth, this was a quote from Cooks back in November of 2019 regarding the possibility of early retirement due to concussions:
"Absolutely not," Cooks said, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN. "When it happened, that never went through my mind. Even now, it's not going through my mind."
The only other con for Cooks is that he's not the most consistent wide receiver week-in and week-out. However, we've seen that even though this may be the case, he still consistently finishes as a high-end WR2 with WR1 upside on a yearly basis when he plays a full 16 games.
Dynasty Price Check
If you currently own Cooks or are looking to acquire him, his price is definitely the highest it has been in a while. Whether you are a believer in him or think that he's one hit away from never playing in the NFL again, now is a good time to take advantage of his price.
Currently, RotoBaller's expert consensus dynasty rankings have Cooks as WR40. I'd expect that number to go up a bit between now and the start of the 2020 NFL season. We all know that Watson likes to air it out and without Hopkins, there are plenty of targets up for grabs in Houston.
Honestly, now is probably not the best time to go out and buy Cooks given the spike in value, unless the owner isn't a fan and is just looking to get whatever he can out of him. If you own him, you can either hold and continue to take advantage of a young, very underrated dynasty wide receiver, or you can use this opportunity to sell him relatively high. In terms of rookie draft picks, I seriously doubt that you can get a first-round pick for him, even a late one. If you're looking at picks, he might be more around the mid-second 2020 rookie pick range. Personally, I'd be holding and only selling high if someone offered me a sweet deal.
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