Fantasy Reaction: Brandin Cooks Signs 2-Year Extension with Houston (Fantasy Football)

On Thursday night, Brandin Cooks agreed to a 2-year extension worth $39.6 million to stay in Houston with the Texans through the 2024 season. Cooks, 28, has been a consistent and reliable producer for fantasy rosters over the last seven years. Going back to 2015 in his second year in the league, Cooks has finished as a top-20 fantasy WR in six of the last seven seasons, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark in each of those seasons where he finished as the WR20 or better. What’s most impressive about Cooks’ career to this point has been his ability to produce on multiple NFL teams while playing with several different QBs, including 2021 rookie, Davis Mills.

Cooks will enter 2022 with QB continuity as the Houston Texans look to potentially build around 2nd year pro, Davis Mills. Last year, Cooks was just one of eight NFL WRs to achieve at least a 27% target share, and per our Market Share Report, he accounted for 30.7% of his team’s receiving yards, good for 8th most in the league at the WR position. With a depth chart void of talent behind him at the WR position, expect Cooks to once again push for a 25+% target share in 2022, especially with the Texans projected to play from behind in a negative game script frequently. The biggest concern, however, is that Cooks likely doesn’t have the TD upside in this offense to make a jump into the elite tier of fantasy WRs for 2022. A year ago, Houston ranked 30th in TDs per game, and Cooks only saw 9 targets in the red zone per our Red Zone Report. That said, Cooks appears to be a value according to current best ball ADP. He’s the WR33 off the board and based off his career thus far, he is a great bet to beat this ADP come season’s end as a reliable WR2/Flex for fantasy rosters.