Texans acquire WR Brandin Cooks and 2022 4th-round pick from Rams for 2nd-round pick
The pick the Texans dealt for Brandin Cooks is not the one they acquired for DeAndre Hopkins; it's the 57th-overall choice; not the 40th, which means it's theirs. This means that the Texans ended up trading Hopkins and 17 spots in the second round for Brandin Cooks and David Johnson.
This trade would've made sense a couple of years ago when Cooks was seen as a very promising, young receiver, and Johnson didn't need a walker. However, Johnson is an injury waiting to happen, while Cooks has been a huge disappointment for his recent teams. He's been a problem in the locker room, and he has also greatly underperformed lately. He caught just 42 passes for 583 yards and two touchdowns in 14 games last year, as he was phased out of the offense late in the season. Even worse, Cooks has a dubious history of concussions, so one or two more could cause him to miss an extensive period of time.
Bill O'Brien is the dumbest man in the NFL, so it's only natural that he'd squeeze out one more bad trade prior to the draft. This isn't as bad as the Hopkins deal, but it's still terrible. If anyone in Houston is listening, please contact owner Cal McNair and send him this link so he can learn the harm O'Brien is causing to his franchise. I think McNair is spending too much time combing his mustache to pay attention to what's happening with his franchise, so he needs to be made aware of how awful O'Brien is.
Meanwhile, the Rams obviously won this trade. Cooks no longer had much of a role on offense, so getting a second-round choice for him is a steal, especially when considering how bad his contract is.
Grade for Texans - D-
Grade for Rams - A+
