The Texans rolled the dice by swinging a trade for Brandin Cooks, but they apparently thought it was the safest bet after parting ways with their former No. 1 wideout.
Houston kicked off the NFL offseason with a real head-scratcher, sending DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a mediocre return. The Texans were poised to bolster their WR group in the ensuing weeks, however, as this year’s draft class is loaded at receiver.
But considering Houston isn’t slated to make its first pick until 40th overall, Bill O’Brien and Co. reportedly weren’t keen on waiting around and hoping one of this year’s top WR prospects slipped. As such, the Texans went out and acquired a proven talent.
“My understanding is this: the Texans thought it was a risk to hope that the right receiver would fall to them at 40th overall and in turn played the safer move and went out and got Cooks, a guy who had four 1,000-yard seasons in the last five years,” NFL Network’s James Palmer said Wednesday. “There is a concern with concussions which I’m told steered some teams away, but they do get a guy that’s shown production instead of hoping the right guy falls to them. This shows us a couple things. One, perhaps teams think that most of these receivers will be gone by the end of the first and the start of the second. Also, now that the Texans have Randall Cobb, who they brought in in free agency to play the slot, they have Kenny Stills, Will Fuller and now Cooks, they’re probably going in a different direction at 40th overall.”
Cooks is no slouch, and there’s a good chance he’ll produce the numbers we’ve grown to expect from him in Houston. That said, one has to imagine Deshaun Watson would prefer if Hopkins still was in the fold.
