Wide receiver Brandin Cooks was traded to the Dallas Cowboys today, and according to both The OBR’s Brad Stainbrook and WEWS’s Camryn Justice, the Cleveland Browns were not significant players for his services. And looking at the hoops the Houston Texans had to jump through to get him off of their books, it makes sense. Even if the compensation was just a 2023 fifth round pick and a 2024 sixth round pick.
This makes sense when considering the contract structure that Cooks has attached to his name and the loops the Cowboys had to jump through. To get the deal through, Cooks had to restructure his deal so the Texans could eat $6 million of it while the Cowboys ate the other $12 million.
At that structure, the Browns would have had to have cleared more cap space and restructured another contract themselves.
#Browns were in on him last year, but not much interest this year. https://t.co/9nBQTylO7r
— Brad Stainbrook (@StainbrookNFL) March 19, 2023
Despite seeming like a good option, sources indicated last week they didn't believe the #Browns were in the hunt for Cooks. That remained the case through the week, I'm told. https://t.co/Fdkeo1jaRz
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) March 19, 2023