
Brandin Cooks is a potential fantasy football wide receiver draft sleeper for the 2020 NFL season. Target him is a mid-round WR value pick in fantasy drafts.
BALLER MOVE: Target Around ~75 Overall
CURRENT ADP:~93
ANALYSIS: At first glance, you would think that a wide receiver that has been traded to his fourth team in seven seasons would be a shaky investment from a fantasy perspective. While his 2019 season was certainly a downer, Cooks has a proven track record in his ability to produce as a WR1 for three different teams, with both the Patriots and the Rams making the Super Bowl in his first years with him on the roster. Taking a deeper look into what caused Cooks’ final season in LA to flop can help us understand why he holds significant fantasy value this season with Deshawn Watson and the Texans.
In 2019, Cooks took a back seat to Cooper Kupp as the Rams began the season flooding their offense with Julian Edelman-type short routes. He then missed three games in the middle of the season due to a concussion. When Cooks returned in Week 11, he found an offense that had been transformed to feature more two-TE sets with a breakout season coming from Tyler Higbee. This made Cooks expendable as the least-targeted and most-expensive receiver alongside Robert Woods and Kupp.
As a new face in Houston, Cooks steps into one of the thinnest WR corps in the league thanks to the trade that sent DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona. PFF has Cooks projected to receive 77 targets for a 16.5% share of targets among all Texans' players. Cooks' main competition will come from Will Fuller... who has missed 21 games in the past three seasons. Cooks should directly benefit from the 150+ targets vacated by Hopkins and is an absolute steal with an ADP in the 90+ realm while carrying the upside of becoming the WR1 of Houston, which happens to have a true ace at the QB position in Deshaun Watson. Don't risk it and get Cooks before you get snipped.
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