WR Brandin Cooks Traded to Cowboys, Fantasy Reaction

After a season of trying (and largely failing) to make it work without a strong No. 2 wide receiver behind CeeDee Lamb, the Dallas Cowboys appear to be fixing that, reportedly agreeing to trade for Houston Texans WR Brandin Cooks Sunday.

Cooks, who turns 30 in September, has six 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his nine years in the NFL, including 2020 and 2021. 

He joins a Dallas team that appears to be losing TE Dalton Schultz, released RB Ezekiel Elliott and has already lost WR Noah Brown, which means there should be plenty of work for Cooks behind Lamb and now-starting RB Tony Pollard.

He’ll slide into the No. 2 receiver role in Dallas, pushing Michael Gallup to WR3. With Gallup having another offseason to recover from his torn ACL, a Lamb-Cooks-Gallup trio is suddenly among the best receiver rooms in the league. Dallas could still use a bump at tight end with Schultz gone, and they’ll be in the market for a second running back behind Pollard as well. But the Cooks addition fixes the offense’s biggest concern. 

Cooks leaves a Houston team that has very little in the way of sure things at receiver. Nico Collins is the best holdover from last year, with the team also expected to get John Metchie back after the rookie missed 2022 with leukemia. The Texans have also signed Brown away from Dallas and Robert Woods this offseason, giving whoever the team takes with the second overall pick a low-floor, low-ceiling unit that at least has some names that matter.