Listen to anyone involved with the Cowboys offense talk about their goals for 2023, and it won’t take long for the word explosive to pop up.
While Dallas finished 2022 a top-five team in points per game, they saw just 81 explosive pass plays (16+ yards) over the course of the season. That was actually under the league average, and a stat they aim to raise this fall.
Enter Brandin Cooks. The veteran receiver who’s already notched 1,000-yard campaigns with four different clubs, believes that’s a big reason why the Cowboys traded for him in March.
“I just want to continue to bring that explosive play,” Cooks told reporters this week during OTAs. “Being dynamic, something that they’ve already got, but just really just want to build on that.”
Cooks will undoubtedly add well-traveled experience and leadership to a wide receiver group led by CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup. But Cooks also brings his rare speed- something that has already impressed quarterback Dak Prescott- and a fabled workout regimen, developed over his nine pro seasons, that has helped him maintain both his physique and his 4.33 legs.
“I would say I really learned my routine,” Cooks recalled, “going into year four or year five, and every year I just feel like I’m adding to that. But like I tell the guys, I spend my money on my body because at the end of the day, your greatest ability, as you know, is your availability. Just take that serious, not just on the field, but off the field as well.”
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Cooks told Men’s Journal back in 2019 that he incorporates speed training into every workout he does, sessions that typically include leg presses and sled drags. But he also mixes in weights, Pilates, and yoga. Medicine balls, tire flips, and box jumps are staples. Pull-ups keep his hands strong. Agility drills in sand work pretty much everything. He’s a fan of boxing workouts, too, something he’s gotten at least two of his Cowboys teammates to take up.
Cowboys LB/DE Micah Parsons, WR Brandin Cooks and CB Stephon Gilmore getting in some work at @Tmackelite in Allen, Texas pic.twitter.com/U02xG38cRd
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) May 24, 2023
In the offseason, when other guys are golfing or gaming, Cooks, an avid hiker, is adding to his bucket list of mountain trails. Even focusing on his nutrition and adding in postgame naps in a hyperbaric chamber became standard operating procedure after seeing former teammates leave no stone unturned in their comprehensive self-care routines.
“The two guys that come to mind right away are Drew [Brees] and Tom [Brady],” the 29-year-old Cooks said this week. “They’re quarterbacks, so it looks a little different, but just how serious they were about their routine 20-plus years into the league. I learned a lot of that from them.”
Now Cooks looks to use those lessons to add explosiveness to the Cowboys offense. And maybe he’ll end up copying one more thing from Brees and Brady: hoisting a Lombardi Trophy.
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