Did the Cowboys enhance their offense with Brandin Cooks? | You Pod to Win the Game

Yahoo Sports' Charles McDonald, Jori Epstein and Charles Robinson discuss the Houston Texans trading Brandin Cooks to the Dallas Cowboys, including what this means for the offense and wide receivers in 2023.

Video transcript

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CHARLES ROBINSON: I guess what does this do when you stare at the Cowboys' rotation of receivers now? Where does he fit in? I mean, is he two now? Like did we just push Gallup to three?

JORI EPSTEIN: Yeah. Yeah, it's a great question. I think from a Cowboys' standpoint, first of all, I'd say I was praising the Giants last week for like the Darren Waller type moves for getting Daniel Jones and Saquon back under contract. And for just like doing things that don't have a lot of long-term ramifications that were good-value picks. And it's like if you're going to praise the Giants for that, how much more so? The Cowboys to get Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks for the value that they got I think is so impressive.

Like Brandin Cooks, they were kind of interested at the trade deadline last year. But that $18 million salary after they'd gotten rid of Amari Cooper for $20 million was too much. And now for a fifth and sixth round pick over the next couple of years, they're taking that $18 million down to $12 million. And I just think that's like so different.

In terms of what it does for their offense, I definitely think he's their number two now besides CeeDee Lamb. And this is the year that you want to do that because CeeDee's still on his rookie contract. And so you can pay $12 million to your number two. Gallup, I mean, I think he'll be better this year. I think that coming back from an ACL injury that second year back is usually a lot better for a receiver than the first year.

My challenge is that-- and I love Michael as a person, but he struggled with confidence last year. And so I think you have to make sure you get that confidence back for your body-- for your mind to let your body do what you're physically capable of doing in that second year. I reached out to a couple of people who had been on teams that Brandin Cooks had been on, since he's been on so many of them after that trade yesterday. And I'm like, I'm just trying to square like, how does a guy who's as productive as he is get traded as much as he does?

And one team person who had worked with him said like, look, he's a really, really good number two who keeps being paid like a number one. And I thought that was put really well. And he said-- and the person said he's a complementary piece, one of the best in the NFL. But people have acquired him likely viewing him as a primary threat, which he isn't. And I also heard great things about his work ethic and just sort of like how he is in the culture.

And someone who had spent time with him in Houston said similarly. Like they think last year how vocal he was the outlier relative to what he's shown. And so I think what I like about it is the Cowboys are going on and on last season, even a little bit into the off season about Odell Beckham Jr. And not only was that not going to be a reliable option in my opinion, it also wasn't smart like schematically.

To get-- you already have Michael Gallup as like your contested catch guy who's coming back from an ACL. Do you need two people like that? So I think Brandin Cooks gives them a much more reliable guy. He might not be quite as explosive as some of these other guys, he might not have the high end that OBJ had in his peak, but I think that he adds a different skill set than the receivers currently had.

And also when you look at the success that Dak has had in his career with guys like Cole Beasley, with guys like Dalton Schultz, sort of like underneath options, I think that Brandin Cooks can be that. Which will also be important when you have a coach like Mike McCarthy who says, I don't want to do as much vertical. I want to do a little more west coast offense.

CHARLES MCDONALD: I was talking to someone yesterday I think that CeeDee and Brandin Cooks, that's such a good one-two combo for like Dak's skill set specifically. Because I think Dak is-- I don't-- I'm not sure Dak needs like a super dominant number one receiver. I think CeeDee is going to get enough targets in that offense. But just someone to help take the pressure off that a little bit while they kind of figure out what the next era of this offense looks like moving on from Zeke. As your offensive line starts to get a little bit older you've got to move around the pieces on that.

I just think like what they couldn't do this season was go in and, for lack of a better term, have like this constipated passing game where you don't have any threats to really blow off the top of the defense. Even if McCarthy wants to be more west coast, it still helps to have a guy that can do something like that. Because even if you go back to basically all the times that Brandin Cooks has gotten traded from the Saints, to the Patriots, to the Rams, like they were all getting him for that deep threat position.

Because remember when he got to the Rams I think he was replacing Sammy Watkins in like their deep threat role. And he's really good there. And he even had some moments in Houston. And then Houston became Houston he was like oh. Remember how I said I didn't want to be traded? That's actually a lie. I'm so sorry. I got to get out of here.