The Houston Texans traded with the Los Angeles Rams for receiver Brandin Cooks. While the AFC South champions are getting another speedy receiver to add to their eclectic group in the post-DeAndre Hopkins reality, they are getting Cooks’ concussion concerns along with him.
In a regular offseason, there would be a level of trust that the Texans conducted their due diligence to evaluate Cooks and the concussions that cost him two games in 2019, the only two games he he missed since the New Orleans Saints drafted him in 2014. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on the typical functions of the offseason, including clubs conducting their own medical examinations of players.
Texans coach and general manager Bill O’Brien told Houston media on a conference call Thursday that they had a colleague of Texans team doctor, Dr. Walter Lowe, conduct the examination out in Los Angeles.
“Without getting too much into who did the physical on Brandin, but it was a doctor that we felt really good about, a doctor that Dr. Lowe had a personal friendship with and that’s kind of how it goes at this unique time when there’s no traveling and no things like that,” O’Brien explained.
In addition to the examination, the Texans also spoke with other doctors about Cooks’ injuries and determined they felt “really good about where Brandin’s at,” according to O’Brien.
Said O’Brien: “We really can’t wait to start coaching him. Again, like I said, these things all have to play out. We understand that. We do. We put a lot of research into these things, a lot of work, a lot of layers of research, and they all have to play out. Hopefully, they play out well. We believe it will.”
Cooks caught 42 passes for 583 yards and two touchdowns in his final season with the Rams, all career lows sans the receiving yards. The Texans are hopeful they can get better production out of the 5-10, 183-pound speedy wideout.