Fantasy Football Impact: Cowboys Trade for Brandin Cooks

Cooks goes from a No. 1 receiver in Houston to the second option in Dallas, but his presence is good news for Dak Prescott.

The Dallas Cowboys have acquired veteran wide receiver Brandin Cooks for a 2023 fifth-round pick and a 2024 sixth-round pick, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport. Cooks will move on to a much better offensive attack, but I wouldn’t expect an increase in terms of his overall fantasy football draft value in 2023.

Cooks was the top option in the Texans’ pass attack over the last three years. He scored over 230 fantasy points in both 2021 and ‘22 before seeing his points fall to 145.6 last season. He’s also seen his points-per-game average drop in each of the last three years. Still, Cooks is the clear No. 2 in Dallas behind alpha CeeDee Lamb, of course, and he’ll no doubt be in the WR3 conversation in drafts.

The biggest winner in Big D is Dak Prescott.

Prescott struggled in the stat sheets without Amari Cooper last season, averaging just 16.6 points (down from the 20 he averaged in 2021). He also threw a career-worst 15 interceptions in just 12 games. If he can gain a good rapport with Cooks, as he had with Cooper, Prescott should see his numbers rise next season.

Cooks’ presence with the Cowboys is bad news for Michael Gallup, who failed as the team’s No. 2 wideout last season. He’ll be worth just a late-round flier in 2023 drafts, and NFL sophomore Jalen Tolbert won’t be on the radar in re-drafts.

In Houston, the Texans are expected to pick their future franchise quarterback with the No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft. Whether that’s Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud or Florida’s Anthony Richardson remains to be seen. The eventual starter won’t have great options in the pass attack, at least for now.

The Texans current depth chart has Nico Collins, Noah Brown and Robert Woods as the top three options, with John Metchie III and Amari Rodgers also in the mix. None of the top three are more than WR4- or WR5-level options in fantasy leagues.

The team should grab a wideout with the No. 12 overall pick, likely TCU’s Quentin Johnston or Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and that player could make some noise in fantasy as a rookie. Still, the Texans offense will be a mish-mash of not-so-hot options beyond Dameon Pierce and maybe a rookie quarterback or receiver.

---

Michael Fabiano is an award-winning fantasy football analyst on Sports Illustrated and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame. Click here to read all his articles here on SI Fantasy. You can follow Michael on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for your late-breaking fantasy news and the best analysis in the business to help you win a fantasy championship!