Must Target Player - Brandin Cooks
Photo By Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports via nbcsports.com
Season after season players come and go in fantasy football. Some players stick around and are consistent assets year after year, and others might have one or two great seasons and then get lost in the abyss. When it comes to fantasy football, it’s a great strategy to target players who are consistent scorers. If you are looking at a draft board and you need a player that is going to constantly get you points week in and week out then you’re already doing yourself a service. That doesn’t mean that boom players are bad, but it does mean that you are going to have games where they disappear.
Brandin Cooks is not one of those disappearing act players. Cooks is my wide receiver “Must Target” player for 2022 fantasy drafts. I’m happy to say that I have some great evidence and information that could help lead you to landing one of if not the most consistent wide receiver in fantasy football the last 7 years. “But James, he’s a Texan, and they’re an awful team.” Whoa, just hold it there buckaroo and let me enlighten you.
Last season Cooks was one of the most consistent wide receivers week in and week out. In 2022 Cooks finished inside the top 24 wide receivers the 9th most times, at 56.3% of weeks. That’s over half the season! In that aspect he was better than DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, Ja’Marr Chase, Michael Pittman Jr., and many others. Wouldn’t you like a receiver that for over half the season finishes as a WR2 or better?
If you’ve followed Cooks at all during his tenure in the NFL you know that he hasn’t always been a Texan. Cooks started his career in New Orleans, drafted in 2014 and had a modest rookie season with Drew Brees. But after that season there was no modesty left. The next two seasons in New Orleans, Cooks had over 1,100 yards in each, and 17 total touchdowns. He then went to New England for a season with Brady where he had over 1,000 yards and 7 touchdowns. In 2018 he joined the Rams, where in his first season had over 1,000 yards and 5 touchdowns. The next season was a bit abysmal, and his first season since the rookie tenure to not go over 1,000 but we all blame Jared Goff and his god awful season in 2019 for that. Since then he has been on the Texans, and has had back to back 1,000 yard seasons and 12 touchdowns. You see a pattern here?
To put all of that into fantasy terms, Cooks has finished at or inside the WR20 in 6 of the last 7 seasons. Here’s how his fantasy finishes play out:
2021 – WR20
2020 – WR17
2019 – WR61 (Really Bad Jared Goff Season)
2018 – WR13
2017 – WR15
2016 – WR10
2015 – WR14
The numbers are hard to ignore. You can’t even argue that Davis Mills scares you going into 2022, because he was the quarterback last season for Cooks and forced him the ball. Enough forcing to make him the WR20. Mills will be better headed into year 2, and guess what, the Texans still have no real weapons to catch the ball besides Cooks. Cooks will be open, and Mills is going to throw it because he has no other option. He was targeted a massive 133 times last season. That’s more than Ja’Marr Chase, Terry McLaurin, Chris Godwin, Mike Williams, Deebo Samuel, and CeeDee Lamb. GIVE ME THAT VOLUME.
Cooks is currently being drafted somewhere around the 6th roudn in drafts at this time, and if you’re lucky enough to land him on your team, you’re getting value. Cooks will either end the season as a WR2 or WR1 in fantasy football, and if you don’t have to spend a ton of capital on him, you can really shape a nice team. Load up on big time running backs and a couple WR1’s in those first few rounds, then round it off nicely with a 6th round almost guaranteed 1,000 yard, 6+ touchdown receiver.
It’s a no brainer.
SKOL
- JD