As we gear up to the start of the NFL season, Football Absurdity is going to bring you a comprehensive breakdown of every notable player that will be available in fantasy football drafts. We only look at the past three seasons for a player. This is because anyone who is looking at data from 2016 to figure out what to do in 2020 had better be figuring out how to un-screw their country by rejoining the E.U. Brandin Cooks is on his fourth team in five seasons, but has a great quarterback (again!?) What’s his 2020 fantasy outlook?
Brandin Cooks ADP and AAV:
Standard: WR34, 79 overall
PPR: WR36, 89 overall
Average Auction Value: $3
Brandin Cooks Statistics:
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| G | 14 | 16 | 16 |
| GS | 14 | 16 | 15 |
| Tgt | 72 | 117 | 114 |
| Rec | 42 | 80 | 65 |
| Yards | 583 | 1204 | 1082 |
| TD | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Tgt/G | 4.50 | 7.31 | 7.13 |
| Rec/G | 2.63 | 5.00 | 4.06 |
| Rec% | 58.3% | 68.4% | 57.0% |
| Yds/Tgt | 8.10 | 10.29 | 9.49 |
| Yds/Rec | 13.88 | 15.05 | 16.65 |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Air Yards | 1004 | 1469 | 1759 |
| aDOT | 13.9 | 12.7 | 15.4 |
| YAC | 169 | 357 | 227 |
| YAC/Tgt | 2.35 | 3.08 | 1.99 |
| YAC/Rec | 4.02 | 4.46 | 3.49 |
| YAC% | 29.0% | 30.0% | 21.0% |
| AYMS | 23% | 32% | 33% |
| Tgt MS | 13% | 22% | 19% |
| Year | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Std Pts | 75.5 | 163.2 | 156.2 |
| HPPR Pts | 96.5 | 203.2 | 188.7 |
| PPR Pts | 117.5 | 243.2 | 221.2 |
| Pts/G | 5.4 | 10.2 | 9.8 |
| HPPR Pts/G | 6.9 | 12.7 | 11.8 |
| PPR Pts/G | 8.4 | 15.2 | 13.8 |
| Pts/Tgt | 1.05 | 1.39 | 1.37 |
| Pts/Tgt (HPPR) | 1.34 | 1.74 | 1.66 |
| Pts/Tgt (PPR) | 1.63 | 2.08 | 1.94 |
Brandin Cooks Overview:
Poor Brandin Cooks just can’t catch a break. He can, however, catch a football. It’s why he’s on his fourth team in five years and has left a trail of 1,000-yard seasons in his wake. Cooks is an exceptionally talented player who just can’t seem to stick anywhere to save his life. This time, concussions and a massive contract found the Rams scrambling to move him off their roster in an offseason of moves we like to call “undoing the whoopsies.” The Undoing the Whoopsies is also why Todd Gurley is currently an Atlanta Falcon. Cooks is exceptionally talented, but his concussions are extremely concerning. Luckily, they’re built into his draft price.
This year, Brandin Cooks gets another otherworldly talent throwing him the ball, just like he did in New England and New Orleans. No, I didn’t skip Jared Goff. I mean, look at him. Anyway, Cooks is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, but his inability to stay on a team for more than a couple years doesn’t diminish his skils.
After trading DeAndre Hopkins for David Johnson and a lifetime supply of crutches, legendary sports mind Bill O’Brien said, “can we replace him with a guy who will be as reliably on the field as Will Fuller?” With absolutely no one to stand in his way, he then went out and got five-times-concussed wideout Brandin Cooks, who joins his fourth team in five years and gets around more than a rich barfly.
Brandin Cooks Draft Strategy:
Brandin Cooks Auction Value: $7
Draft Ranking: Find out for your league settings in a Beersheet!
I like Cooks’ chance of getting the most targets from DeSean Watson. His injury history is obviously a concern but comes built into his price. Seriously, $5 or a late-round pick for a potential top receiver in a strong offense is well worth having to IR him for several games. A torn and mangled lottery ticket can still get cashed in (I hope). Brandin Cooks is a free space pick up in all our drafts so far.
Best Case Scenario:
Healthy and surging, Cooks flirts with top-12 wide receiver status as a rich barfly flirts with the annoyed waitresses.
Worst Case Scenario:
Cooks is injured for most of season or Watson spreads it around. Cooks spends most of his time on fantasy benches like a rich barfly in an Applebees’ dollar drink night booth. Is anyone thirsty?
[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Brandin_Cooks_LA_RAMS_%2849133462747%29.jpg, cropped under CC BY-SA 2.0]
[Statistics are sourced from pro-football-reference.com and airyards.com]
