Houston Texans wide receiver Brandin Cooks seems to find a way to produce every year with any quarterback. What is Cooks’ current ADP, and should fantasy football managers select him at that price in fantasy drafts?
Brandin Cooks ADP | Is he worth his current price in fantasy drafts?
Ever since leaving New Orleans, Cooks has been undervalued. Now, at age 29, he’s finally getting some respect.
Cooks’ ADP is around 55th overall. He’s going as the WR20. The irony is, despite Cooks actually getting ADP respect, he’s still being drafted at his floor.
Outside of an anomalous 2019 season where he was unrosterable in fantasy, Cooks has never finished lower than the WR22 in PPR fantasy points per game.
While his ceiling is not where it used to be, Cooks’ floor is incredibly high. You can pretty much pencil in a WR15-20 finish.
Brandin Cooks’ projected fantasy value in 2022
Outside of that disastrous 2019 season, Cooks has averaged between 13.7 and 16.2 ppg every year of his career. Other than 2016, which was a down year for wide receivers leading to his 16.4 ppg being the WR9, Cooks has finished between WR16 and WR19 in ppg in five of the past seven seasons. Just remarkable consistency.
Cooks remain consistent on the field despite the lack of it in his overall career. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a receiver this good get tossed around from team to team this haphazardly. Cooks has played on the Saints, Rams, Patriots, and Texans. He’s produced with Hall of Famers like Drew Brees and Tom Brady as well as journeymen like Jared Goff and Tyrod Taylor. The man finds his way to 1,000 receiving yards every season.
The great thing about Cooks is he’s adaptable. We’ve seen him play the low-volume efficient role when he averaged 16.6 yards per reception in 2017 with the Patriots. We’ve seen him be the high-volume checkdown guy when he averaged 11.5 yards per reception with the Texans last season.
For most of his career, Cooks has been an outside receiver. In New England, he spent 82% of his time on the flanks. But last season, the Texans put him in the slot 34% of the time. Cooks continues to prove he can do it all.
Impact of the Texans’ depth chart on Cooks’ fantasy value
The Texans have a plethora of wide receivers, but no one is a threat to Cooks. He is the clear WR1 on a team that projects to be trailing a fair amount.
Opposite Cooks will almost certainly be sophomore wide receiver Nico Collins. With John Metchie out for the season due to his leukemia diagnosis, it will be Chris Conley, Chris Moore, Phillip Dorsett, or Chester Rogers as the WR3 and WR4. None of them are even remotely relevant.
The Texans appear committed to Davis Mills for at least one more season. I don’t really see a scenario where he gets benched outside of exceptionally poor play. If 2021 is to be believed, that’s a good thing for Cooks.
Cooks played 16 games last season. He averaged 11.7 ppg in his four games with Tyrod Taylor but 15.4 ppg in his 12 games with Mills. 16 ppg is about the threshold for WR1 production in fantasy. For his entire career, Cooks has been putting up mid-to-low WR2 numbers with just about any quarterback. It was no different with Mills.
I really believe Cooks’ awful 2019 season tarnished his reputation. It took the fantasy community two full seasons to get over it. While it’s finally happened, Cooks is still a worthy pick at his ADP in fantasy drafts. He is our consensus WR17, which is slightly ahead of his ADP.