The Houston Texans organization is no way, shape, or form in a good spot. Now, although that works out well for a few players on the team, it doesn’t bode well for one player: Brandin Cooks.
The Houston Texans don’t have a lot going for them right now. They have the Deshaun Watson fiasco going on, and they are in the early stages of a rebuild that makes their team pretty ugly on paper.
It wasn’t always like that though. Prior to everything that’s happened in the last couple seasons, the Texans actually had what I’d consider a very promising roster. In fact, they even made the playoffs only a few years ago. But as it turns out, that was the peak of Texans football.
Following making the playoffs, the Texans rebounded and finished the following season with only four total wins. And then everything broke loose.
Deshaun Watson began to get lawsuits filed against him at which point the Texans had to find a new quarterback. They decided to go with quarterback, Davis Mills. But, that was just the tip of the iceberg. They also lost J.J. Watt who later signed with the Arizona Cardinals, and they traded away linebacker, Benardrick McKinney.
It’s clear that they are in a rough spot. However, after their draft this season, there is a lot of bright spots appearing at the end of the tunnel.
They drafted Derek Stingley Jr., Kenyon Green, Jalen Pitre, John Metchie III, Christian Harris, and many more talented players. And when looking at the list of names above, I have complete faith that this team is on it’s way. But there is still one problem:
CBSsports.com released a top 100 players list and all Texans were held at bay including wide receiver, Brandin Cooks. So, let me ask: If Brandin Cooks was on a different team would he have made the list? Well, let’s take a deeper look into the question.
Why Was Texans Receiver, Brandin Cooks, Snubbed From the Top 100?
Brandin Cooks’ value around the league isn’t very high if you haven’t noticed by now. He’s moved from team-to-team since coming into the league, and to no fault of his own, has moved around a lot having played for four different teams since 2014.
I feel it’s for that reason that the outside media doesn’t appreciate his talent. They look at his history around the league and the fact that he’s moved around a lot and just assume he’s a sub-par receiver. But that isn’t the case at all. He’s actually an incredibly talented receiver and we saw that all season long last year.
Last season Cooks played in 16 games for the Texans and not only did he play well, but he really showed up when we needed him too. He had 90 receptions on 134 targets, 1,037 receiving yards, and six touchdowns. However, just to show you in words how good he has been throughout his career, let’s look at his career stats.
In his career, he averages 4.8 receptions per game, 66.5 yards per game, and has a catch percentage of 65.8. Now, although those stats don’t look great, let’s look at what that would get you per season instead of per game.
In an average season, Brandin Cooks would average just under 1,000 receiving yards. Which, although no excuse, should come with a note stating that he had only 500 receiving yards in his last season with the Rams. Which, once again, no excuse, but that hurts the average quite a bit. Especially given the fact that outside of two seasons, he has hit the 1,000 yard mark.
But getting back to the stats.
On top of averaging just under 1,000 receiving yards per season in his career, he is also averaging 71 receptions per season in his career which is quite fair. Once again, he has been pretty consistent in that mark as well as yards, but that year he had with the Rams is really suppressing his stats. Nonetheless, 71 receptions for a guy who’s been a number two receiver for most of his career is pretty impressive.
Continuing with the stats, he is also averaging six touchdowns per season which is a pretty good accomplishment for plays the game the way he does. In fact, I have to be honest, that surprised me quite a bit.
Now, I’m sure you’re beginning to ask yourselves why I’m stating all of these stats? Well, it’s easy.
Referring back to what I wrote about his stats this season, those numbers seem pretty good right? I mean, 90 receptions, 1,000 yards, and six touchdowns- those are very good numbers. Yet, he didn’t make the list. Why?
Well, of course this is all speculation but it seems to me that Cooks’ value has been downgraded yet again. But, it’s all due to the implications of being apart of such a disaster of a organization. When you don’t have the talent around you that you can trust and confide in, the trust you receive from the media will be non-existent.