Report: Dallas Cowboys among teams who have called Houston Texans about WR Brandin Cooks

The Dallas Cowboys need a wide receiver. It is possible that Dallas looks to the 2022 NFL Draft to land the help that they need. Ohio State’s Chris Olave or Arkansas’ Trey Burks are possible options with the 24th overall pick; however, Dallas also needs help at left guard and taking one of them over someone like Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green or Boston College’s Zion Johnson would be denying an opportunity to improve the offensive line.

How the draft shakes out is still something that is very much to be determined, but if the Cowboys want they can bring in talent in the here and now. It seems that they believe this is possible given that they were reportedly interested in trading for wide receiver DeVante Parker before he wound up with the New England Patriots, that obviously took one name off of the board but there are still some left.

Houston Texans wide receiver Brandin Cooks has seen his name mentioned in a lot of trade discussions and our own Matt Holleran recently wrote about how if the Cowboys want to win this season they would consider pulling this off. Did he will this into existence? Maybe!

The Cowboys are among the teams who have called Houston about Brandin Cooks

It takes two to tango so the Cowboys would have to get the Texans to agree to trade Cooks to them if it ultimately winds up happening, but for something to happen then conversations have to start. According to Jordan Schultz the Cowboys are among the teams who have called Houston about trading for Cooks.

Schultz added in a follow-up tweet that the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints have both called about Cooks which is a total of five reported teams not counting the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders who landed other options. Incidentally, it was New Orleans who drafted Cooks in the first round way back in 2014.

Brandin Cooks has been very productive over the course of his career and has spent it with the Saints, Patriots, Rams, and Texans. Through eight NFL seasons he has eclipsed 1,000 yards six different times, but he has been traded from every team that he ever played for (not counting the Texans yet obviously).

Both the Patriots and Rams surrendered first-round picks for Cooks so counting the one that the Saints spent on him that is three first-round picks that have been involved with this particular player. Houston ‘only’ gave up a second-round pick when they acquired him (they also received a fourth from Los Angeles) so again there is a ton of capital invested him by several different teams.

This year will be Cooks’ age 29 season which would make him the oldest wide receiver on the Cowboys roster. He did hit 1,000 yards yet again this past season (1,037 to be precise) and has played at least 14 games in all of his NFL seasons but one, his rookie year when he played 10.

Dallas traded away Amari Cooper this offseason and saw Cedrick Wilson sign with the Miami Dolphins. They have since signed James Washington so adding Cooks to their group that already consisted of CeeDee Lamb and the returning Michael Gallup (also a move executed this offseason) along with Simi Fehoko in year two and Noah Brown back on a one-year deal would raise the floor quite a bit.

Reports lately have been that Houston wants a second-round pick for Cooks, but given that DeVante Parker went for a third-rounder and that it wasn’t to Dallas suggests that the Cowboys aren’t willing to pay that price. Perhaps a fourth-round pick could get it done? Maybe even the fifth that Dallas got from the Amari Cooper trade?

Cooks has a base salary of $12.5M this season as a part of the deal he negotiated with the Los Angeles Rams back in 2018, a deal that the Texans restructured a year ago. Perhaps the Cowboys feel more comfortable with that than they did Amari Cooper.

Update: 8:00pm ET

Cooks and the Texans worked out an extension.

He won’t be joining the Cowboys or anyone else.