What are fair expectations for Brandin Cooks in 2020? He hasn’t lit it up with the Rams, and he really tailed off after suffering a concussion last year in London.
Cooks suffered a pair of concussions last season (one earlier in the Seattle game) and when he came back, he was more lightly used. Including the games he missed, Cooks finished with fewer than 50 receiving yards in his last nine games, and with just one touchdown.
Including the postseason following the 2018 season, Cooks has caught only 2 TDs in the team’s last 19 games (he missed two of those games and was sidelined very early in the Bengals game).
It seems like some players are more prone to concussions, and Cooks might be one of those guys. The Rams may look to protect him by having him play a lesser role – operating mainly away from traffic, while Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp do more of the heavy lifting in the passing game.
Prior to last year, Cooks had gone over 1,000 yards in four straight seasons. In his first season with the Rams, he caught 80 passes for 1,204 yards, but with only 5 TDs.
As good as Cooks has looked at times during his career, he’s not a guy I expect to draft on any of my fantasy teams in 2020.
On the chart below, I’ve put the games after that second concussion in bold.
| BRANDIN COOKS WITH THE RAMS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2018 | at Oak. | W 33-13 | 8 | 5 | 87 | 17.4 | 0 |
| 2018 | Ariz. | W 34-0 | 9 | 7 | 159 | 22.7 | 0 |
| 2018 | LAC | W 35-23 | 8 | 7 | 90 | 12.9 | 0 |
| 2018 | Min. | W 38-31 | 8 | 7 | 116 | 16.6 | 1 |
| 2018 | at Sea. | W 33-31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 2018 | at Den. | W 23-20 | 6 | 2 | 53 | 26.5 | 0 |
| 2018 | at S.F. | W 39-10 | 5 | 4 | 64 | 16.0 | 1 |
| 2018 | G.B. | W 29-27 | 8 | 3 | 74 | 24.7 | 0 |
| 2018 | at N.O. | L 35-45 | 8 | 6 | 114 | 19.0 | 1 |
| 2018 | Sea. | W 36-31 | 12 | 10 | 100 | 10.0 | 0 |
| 2018 | K.C. | W 54-51 | 12 | 8 | 107 | 13.4 | 0 |
| 2018 | at Det. | W 30-16 | 6 | 4 | 62 | 15.5 | 0 |
| 2018 | at Chi. | L 6-15 | 8 | 3 | 22 | 7.3 | 0 |
| 2018 | Phil. | L 23-30 | 7 | 6 | 59 | 9.8 | 0 |
| 2018 | at Ariz. | W 31-9 | 3 | 3 | 35 | 11.7 | 0 |
| 2018 | S.F. | W 48-32 | 9 | 5 | 62 | 12.4 | 2 |
| 2018 | Dall. | W 30-22 | 6 | 4 | 65 | 16.3 | 0 |
| 2018 | at N.O. | W 26-23 | 8 | 7 | 107 | 15.3 | 0 |
| 2018 | v. N.E. | L 3-13 | 13 | 8 | 120 | 15.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | at Car. | W 30-27 | 6 | 2 | 39 | 19.5 | 0 |
| 2019 | N.O. | W 27-9 | 4 | 3 | 74 | 24.7 | 1 |
| 2019 | at Clev. | W 20-13 | 12 | 8 | 112 | 14.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | T.B. | L 40-55 | 9 | 6 | 71 | 11.8 | 0 |
| 2019 | at Sea. | L 29-30 | 3 | 1 | 29 | 29.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | S.F. | L 7-20 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 6.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | at Atl. | W 37-10 | 7 | 4 | 59 | 14.8 | 0 |
| 2019 | Cin. | W 24-10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 |
| 2019 | at Pitt. | L 12-17 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2019 | Chi. | W 17-7 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2019 | Balt. | L 6-45 | 4 | 2 | 32 | 16.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | at Ariz. | W 34-7 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 12.0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Sea. | W 28-12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2019 | at Dall. | L 21-44 | 8 | 4 | 46 | 11.5 | 0 |
| 2019 | at S.F. | L 31-34 | 6 | 4 | 39 | 9.8 | 1 |
| 2019 | Ariz. | W 31-24 | 5 | 3 | 40 | 13.3 | 0 |
—Ian Allan