Jerry Jones likes his team to have lots of star players every year. Come to think of it, that's probably why he picked that logo for the team.
Jokes aside, I have to level with you all: I was born into Cowboys fandom. Born at a suburban hospital just a few minutes from where the Cowboys' gleaming new team headquarters now stands in Frisco, TX, I never had a chance at a better life.
Jokes really aside this time, Cowboys' bondage fandom has afforded me some insights into how the team tends to operate to go along with the boundless suffering (I was eight for the last Super Bowl, mind you). One of the worst-kept secrets about the Cowboys is how Jerry Jones views them as a business first, a membership club card into other business opportunities second, and a football team... somewhere further down the list. And what the heady highs of the dynastic '90s Cowboys taught Jerry (and the utterly moribund lows of the late '90s/early 2000s Cowboys reiterated to the man) was that high profile players are very marketable. And so, once the Cowboys finally emerged from the Anthony Wright/Quincy Carter purgatory era and stepped back into the light under Bill Parcells, Jerry did his darnedest to keep household names on the roster every year - whether their on-field performances justified it or not.
Luckily for us Brandin Cooks' performance still does, and his so-so stats last year are conspiring to help us all get a heck of a bargain on him in drafts next month. The Cowboys traded for Cooks last offseason, rescuing him from a Houston team that at the time was still a month away from drafting CJ Stroud. They brought him in effectively as a backstop for Michael Gallup, the homegrown guy to whom the Cowboys had bafflingly gifted a hefty contract extension fresh off of an ACL tear, a year earlier. The Cowboys would basically have two #2 WRs in 2023, in the hopes that Gallup would rebound after a very concerning 2022 and that they could just move on from Cooks after 2023.
That didn't happen. Gallup remained a liability to open 2023, with no touchdowns and only a fluky 92-yard day as the Cowboys tried and failed to stave off an upset loss to the Cardinals of note through Week 5. After a week 6 performance against the Chargers that saw Gallup turn 10 targets into three catches for 24 yards the Cowboys pivoted to Cooks (and more CeeDee Lamb) for good.
While Gallup labored to WR79 production over the Cowboys next 10 games, Brandin Cooks was surging squarely back into fantasy relevance. Oh so quietly, Cooks would pile up seven of his eight touchdowns over that stretch, albeit on very limited volume with CeeDee Lamb busy compiling a legendary finish as top dog. But still, Cooks was the WR22 once he effectively replaced Gallup in week 6, with numbers from that point on that project out to 64 receptions, 827 yards and 11 touchdowns.
So while there may be some buzz in the weeks ahead for youngsters Ryan Flournoy and the two Jalens (Tolbert and Brooks), let's remember who signs the checks here. To help underscore my point, here's a look at the Cowboys second and third-leading receivers from each season dating back to 2001 (asterisks for guys who missed significant action).
| Cowboys #2 and #3 Leading WRs Since 2001 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | #2 WR | #2 Stats | WR Rank | #3 WR | #3 Stats | WR Rank |
| 2001 | Joey Galloway | 52-699-3 | 42 | Darrin Chiaverini | 10-107-2 | 111 |
| 2002 | Antonio Bryant | 44-733-6 | 41 | Darnay Scott | 22-218-1 | 99 |
| 2003 | Joey Galloway | 34-672-2 | 53 | Antonio Bryant | 39-550-2 | 65 |
| 2004 | Terry Glenn* | 24-400-2 | 75 | Quincy Morgan* | 22-260-0 | N/A |
| 2005 | Terry Glenn | 62-1136-7 | 12 | Patrick Crayton | 22-341-2 | 83 |
| 2006 | Terry Glenn | 70-1047-6 | 18 | Patrick Crayton | 36-516-4 | 56 |
| 2007 | Patrick Crayton | 50-697-7 | 33 | Sam Hurd | 19-314-1 | 91 |
| 2008 | Patrick Crayton | 39-550-4 | 50 | Miles Austin* | 13-278-3 | 80 |
| 2009 | Roy Williams | 38-596-7 | 43 | Patrick Crayton | 37-622-5 | 49 |
| 2010 | Dez Bryant | 45-561-6 | 49 | Roy Williams | 37-530-5 | 57 |
| 2011 | Dez Bryant | 63-928-9 | 20 | Miles Austin* | 43-579-7 | 47 |
| 2012 | Miles Austin | 66-943-6 | 24 | Kevin Ogletree | 32-436-4 | 70 |
| 2013 | Terrance Williams | 44-736-5 | 44 | Cole Beasley | 39-368-2 | 89 |
| 2014 | Terrance Williams | 37-621-8 | 47 | Cole Beasley | 37-420-4 | 77 |
| 2015 | Cole Beasley | 52-536-5 | 53 | Dez Bryant* | 31-401-3 | 81 |
| 2016 | Dez Bryant | 50-796-8 | 32 | Terrance Williams | 44-594-4 | 62 |
| 2017 | Terrance Williams | 53-568-0 | 65 | Cole Beasley | 36-314-4 | 72 |
| 2018 | Cole Beasley | 65-672-3 | 46 | Michael Gallup | 33-507-2 | 77 |
| 2019 | Michael Gallup | 66-1107-6 | 22 | Randall Cobb | 55-828-3 | 44 |
| 2020 | CeeDee Lamb | 74-935-5 | 20 | Michael Gallup | 59-843-5 | 38 |
| 2021 | Amari Cooper | 68-865-8 | 28 | Cedrick Wilson | 45-602-6 | 53 |
| 2022 | Noah Brown | 43-555-3 | 56 | Michael Gallup | 39-424-4 | 62 |
| 2023 | Brandin Cooks | 54-657-8 | 41 | Michael Gallup | 34-418-2 | 78 |
The bolded seasons were ones where I felt/recalled the #2 receiver being a significantly bigger part of the action than was the #3 guy. A couple are questionable (2016, 2019 in particular) but I think the trend holds up: the Cowboys have tended to want two big names at receiver, and the exceptions have been driven by either the planned #2 faltering (the ill-fated Roy Williams experiment from 2008-2010; Gallup's 2021-2023 struggles) or unheralded players emerging and demanding playing time (Miles Austin in 2011; Cole Beasley finally running Terrance Williams out of town in 2017).
Unlike Mike Williams, Brandin Cooks is not nine months removed from ACL repair and unlike Tyler Lockett, Cooks does not have a recent first round pick bearing down on him for targets - and yet I'm seeing him being taken significantly later than them both right now, with Cooks usually coming off the board outside the top 60 at wide receiver in my recent mock drafts. Madness!
So if you plan to go heavy on running back or other positions early in your drafts next month, I think Cooks is a good name to file away for the later rounds.
—Luke Wilson