Fantasy Football Today - 🚨 Brandin Cooks to the Texans (04/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

Houston has acquired Brandin Cooks! Whose Fantasy value is most affected by this trade? Is it Deshaun Watson? Is it Will Fuller? Cooper Kupp? Is it Cooks himself? We talk about all of the players who are impacted in this deal and we wonder what Cooks has left in the tank at this point.  'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, the Texans better hope DeAndre Hopkins passes his physical. There might not be a spot for him on the roster now if he has to go back to Houston. They just traded for Brandon Cook's bonus pod on Thursday night. Jamie is not going to be on the show tomorrow. Our regularly scheduled show. So I wanted to get him on to give his thoughts. He already did so on CBS Sports HQ. You can check that out.

I'm Adam Azer. He's Jamie Eisenberg. Tomorrow I'll break down this trade with Dave, Ben, and Heath. And also, we'll take your phone calls if you want to call about that. We'll talk about best ball. But that's for tomorrow. Right now, Jamie, which player? All right, so Brandon Cooks.

Let me set it up. Brandon Cooks going to Houston along with a fourth-round pick from the Rams for a second-round pick. Remember, the Texans acquired a second round pick when they traded Hopkins away. You mentioned before the show, Brandon Cooks has five documented concussions, including multiple last year. But which player from a fantasy standpoint is most affected by this trade? I think you can go in a lot of directions here.

Which player is most affected by this trade? I think you can go in a lot of directions here. Which player is most affected by this trade? I think Deshaun Watson wins by getting another weapon that's proven. I was thinking about this. I haven't gone through my rankings yet, but I think Watson, I dropped him clearly from the Hopkins trade from three all the way down to eight.

I will move him definitely ahead of Drew Brees at seven. I'll probably move him ahead of Josh Allen now at six. That was my next question, Watson or Allen. So who's five for you? Five is Prescott. So my top five, I think, is going to be locked in of Mahomes, Jackson, Wilson, Kyler Murray, and Prescott. Okay.

So Brandon Cooks or Will Fuller, who are you drafting first? That's where I'm struggling. Holmes, Jackson, Wilson, Kyler Murray, and Prescott. Okay. So Brandon Cooks or Will Fuller, who are you drafting first? That's where I'm struggling. Right now I would probably lean toward Fuller for one reason. I think with, and I'm going to explore this a little bit more, but I think with what we're dealing with around the world and in our country, that continuity is going to matter for football this year, more so, I think, than talent in a lot of cases.

So I would guess that, look, both guys are injury-prone. Whoever plays 16 games is probably going to be the better of the two. But I think the fact that Watson has a rapport with Fuller is going to matter because he's going to have little time on the field with Cooks. Now, if we have a full training camp, that'll probably change, but right now I would give a slight lean toward Fuller, but they're probably going to be very close in my ranking. Fuller loses, obviously. Yeah, Cooks definitely you can call him injury prone because of the concussions,

but it's worth noting he played 16 games four straight seasons before last year. Now, the year before, 2018, Cooks really only played 15 games, officially 16, but he played one game he got hurt without even getting a target in Week 5 at Seattle. But, you know, I want to get your overall take on this trade because Brandon Cooks, I mean, what does he have left? This guy had a really bad year, 42 catches, 583 yards, two touchdowns, 72 targets in 14 games. 72 targets in 14 games.

72 targets in 14 games. Cup and Woods both had a lot of targets. Higby was better than Cooks. I mean, Higby was probably, I would guess Higby had about as many yards as Cooks in his last five games of the season as Cooks did all year. But the four seasons before that, Brandon Cooks finished 11th, 8th, 8th, and 14th in non-PPR, 12th, 10th, 15th, and 13th in PPR. He was extremely consistent, you know, around 117 targets, 1,100 or so yards, usually about seven, eight touchdowns.

And he's only 26. He'll be 27 in September. So he shouldn't be washed up. It was kind of hard to explain his season last year. What kind of an impact player do you think Brandon Cooks is at this point? I mean, he clearly has the chance to still be an impact player based on health. If he's healthy, I think he's better than Will Fuller. I think that's been proven. Both guys have went on the field, so take that into account for Fuller,

have been clearly explosive. Fuller probably more so in terms of the word explosive than Cooks just because of his splash plays are a little bit more splashier. But Cooks should be the number one receiver on this team if he's right. Yeah, and he's not a huge... I won't have them separated by very far in my rankings. So Fuller was a guy that I was drafting. I think you were probably the most aggressive of the five of us that are on the show.

And I still will be, probably. I mean, you were drafting him as a borderline starter in a lot of cases. Oh, yeah. I think he would have been, if I had rankings, top 24 guy. And I'm not so sure he still is. For me, he was around 30. Yeah. Look, I think that if he played a full season with DeAndre Hopkins,

I think Fuller could be a top 24 guy. Yes, I agree. So it's not like, obviously, this isn't good for him. But I just believe in Will Fuller could be a top 24 guy. Yes, agreed. Obviously, this isn't good for him, but I just believe in Will Fuller if he could stay on the field. Does this affect Cooper Cup or Robert Woods? I don't think so. It's probably a situation where they get a slight boost. Cup is not going to move in my rankings because he's, in some cases, depending on format, you know, anywhere between 10 and 12. Like, for example, in PPR, I have him at 10, a little lower in non-PPR.

But right on the same. He's in that 10 to 12 range. But Woods, I think, you know, this should help him in terms of targets a little bit. You know, I think he's, he's always going to be underrated. Josh Reynolds probably gets a slight bump, you know,

just because he'll play some more, but I think it kind of solidifies Higby as, okay, you know, kind of what you're going to get because you saw it last year with the guys who were, who were there. Right.

But Sean McVay just said he needs to use Gerald Everett more. And I'm just going to save that for tomorrow. We'll talk about that with the others. I don't worry about that with Higby right now. Okay. So to sum it up, I think the player... I asked you a question, who's most affected by this? I think it's Cooks, actually.

I think this is good for Cooks. What do you think? If he's still good, then this is good for him. Right. If he's good, if he's healthy, if he's right, he goes into a situation where there's almost 150 targets available. We'll see what the offensive philosophy, if there's any change, just because of who David Johnson could be as well.

I mean, the Texans are taking some big gambles here. They're taking a gamble on David Johnson returning to the guy that he was. They're taking a chance on Brandon Cooks returning to the guy that he was. And if both those things happen, then they have superstar players. I don't agree with it. I mean, I think it's a mistake to make the trades that he was and if both those things happen then they have superstar players i don't agree with it i mean i think it's it's a mistake to make the trades that they made but it feels like one of the there's like one of those one of those fantasy teams where you're like well if all these things go right you know that they but but but in truth i mean bill o'brien made some some

bad decisions last year in terms of you know they, they bungled the Clowney situation. They overpaid for Tunsell probably. They took on Kenny Stills. They didn't really need Kenny Stills. They didn't really do much. And they still won the division. So they could still win the division, but it's just. Because they have a superstar quarterback. They do, and they had a superstar wide receiver.

And J.J. Watt played. Yeah, but they, I mean, look, we can make fun of Bill O'Brien all we want. As a coach, he's done a really good job. Didn't Watt miss half the season with the torn pectoral? Yeah, he did. He was really good, though, while he played, right? I mean, yeah, look, he wins the division

whenever Andrew Luck is not around, basically. So we'll give him a little bit of credit for that, but obviously he's making some real risky moves here. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. Again, if Brandon Cooks is healthy, then you're probably right. Then he is in a great spot. But I think right now, just the fact that Watson went from losing the guy that he lost

to getting some semblance of hope is a big win for me. And a big loser is Kenny Stills? And Fuller. Fuller was clearly going to be the number one guy. Yeah, but now Kenny Stills is a three, right? Yeah, I mean, Stills loses. They both lose. But I guess what I was getting at before we maybe got a little sidetracked three right yeah i mean still lose they up they both lose but i think you know like like i guess

what i was getting at before you know we we maybe got a little sidetracked is that you what i was going to say is that you were drafting fuller as a as a borderline starter for me he was like i said a high-end number three guy um you know he falls back five or six spots and you know just by the nature of cooks moving up like right now ppr just i'm staring at my rankings, I had Fuller 34 in PPR. They'll probably drop a spot or two. And Cooks was 40. You know, he'll move up five or six spots. Oh, he'll move up ahead of Fuller or behind still?

You said it's going to be close. They'll be back to back. Back to back. Okay. Yeah, I mean, the way I'm thinking of it right now is I'll take the guy who goes later, and I can almost assure you that's going to be Will Fuller. Probably so. Like I said, I just think continuity is going to matter this offseason a lot.

You know, you have a familiarity with a guy, rapport. Those things are going to be important. You better not draft any Buccaneers. I mean, there's case by case. Yeah. I trust Tom Brady. I mean, it's something to take into account. It is, for sure.

Well, look, hopefully that won't be as big of an issue and we can get back together, ladies and gentlemen, as a society. But we will get back together on this podcast on Friday morning, have that episode published by hopefully 11.30 or something like that, Eastern, 11.30 a.m. Eastern. Jamie, thank you very much. Thank you, buddy. All right.

Just want to remind Jamie that the Twitter poll results are in, and I beat him in the fictional draft. And for Jamie, I'm Adam. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today.