5 NFL trade deadline regrets the Dallas Cowboys should have
By Riley Donald
2. Brandin Cooks, WR, Houston Texans
Hypothetical trade package: Cowboys get Brandin Cooks and a 3rd-round pick; Texans get a 1st-round pick and take a chunk of Cooks’ cap hit in 2022
Brandin Cooks is just 29 years old and has surpassed 1,000 yards receiving six times in his career. Yet, he has somehow been traded three times already. Wherever he goes, he produces. With the Texans and Davis Mills last year, he put up 1,037 yards. This trade just about did happen but Jerry Jones and the Texans couldn’t seem to agree on the numbers.
Two sources directly involved tell me #Cowboys and #Texans discussed a potential trade involving WR Brandin Cooks until the final minutes before the NFL trade deadline expired. Draft pick compensation and the $18M guaranteed salary for Cooks in 2023 could not be resolved in time
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) November 1, 2022
The reason the Cowboys did not pursue him is the contract he carries. Cooks cashed in on the booming receiver market when he signed an extension guaranteeing him $36 million over the next two years.
Jerry Jones and the front office didn’t want to eat that hefty contract. Any realistic would have had to make the Texans take on part of the cap hit, hence the first-round pick it would take to convince them of that.