NOVEMBER 20: While the Saints/Cooks divorce still appears to be happening, there is a slight holdup. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the move still hasn’t gone through as the two sides work through “contractual technicalities.” The wideout is still destined for the waiver wire before potentially hitting free agency.
NOVEMBER 19: Well-traveled wide receiver Brandin Cooks could land with another team in the coming days. The Saints and Cooks mutually agreed to part ways on Wednesday, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports. Cooks will be free to sign anywhere if he goes through waivers unclaimed.
The move to cut Cooks came after he renegotiated his contract down, according to Underhill. He had a little over $2MM in guarantees left, including a 2026 salary of approximately $1.7MM, NewOrleans.Football colleague Mike Triplett notes.
Now 32 years old, Cooks entered the NFL as a first-round pick of the Saints in 2014. After spending his first three years in New Orleans, he divided the next eight among the Patriots, Rams, Texans, and Cowboys. Cooks returned to the Saints on a two-year, $13MM pact last March.
With the Saints well out of contention, Cooks’ name came up in the rumor mill ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline. A trade involving Cooks would have been his fifth. That would have set a new NFL record, but the Saints didn’t find a taker. However, one could emerge now that adding Cooks won’t require surrendering draft compensation.
The Bills, Broncos, and Steelers are among contenders that were looking for receivers before the deadline. None of those teams acquired one, which could make any of them logical landing spots for Cooks. It’s worth pointing out that Cooks began his career under Broncos head coach Sean Payton, then with the Saints.
Whether it’s Denver or another club, Cooks’ next employer will be picking up someone who has recorded 729 catches, 9,697 yards, and 60 touchdowns in 168 career regular-season games. While that’s excellent production, Cooks’ output has experienced a dramatic decline over the past couple of years.
Cooks caught 26 of 54 targets for 259 yards and three TDs in 10 games with the Cowboys last season. In his reunion with the Saints this year, Cooks grabbed 19 of 25 targets for just 165 yards and no scores. Cooks played 34 offensive snaps in a win over Carolina in Week 10, which proved to be his final game with the Saints, but rookie quarterback Tyler Shough didn’t target him.
Now that he’s leaving New Orleans, there’s a good chance Cooks will enter into a better QB situation than he had with the Saints this year or the Cowboys in 2024. Before working with the inexperienced duo of Shough and Spencer Rattler in New Orleans, Cooks mostly teamed with Cowboys backup Cooper Rush last season. He hasn’t paired with an above-average QB since Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9 of 2024.
For their part, the Saints have now subtracted a pair of notable veteran receivers this month. Cooks is following Rashid Shaheed, whom the Saints traded to the Seahawks, out the door. Chris Olave, Devaughn Vele, and Mason Tipton are the only WRs left on the Saints’ active roster.
Steelers easy
Yes. It has their names all over it
Don’t count Sean Payton out. The Broncos were desperate enough to sign Marcedes Lewis so Cooks would be another awesome addition 🙂
At this point of his career, he’s likely more interested in playing for a contender.
So the Broncos isn’t a contender? Tied best record in the league and a 2 game lead in the division.
I think he’s talking about the Steelers. The placement of certain comments in the chain doesn’t always make sense.
@myaccount2 True.
Why? They signed Valdez-Scandling, who is sitting on the practice squad for some reason. Already knows Rodgers.
This guy is on the world tour. There’s a reason he can’t stick anywhere
One of the weirdest and most pointless contracts of the offseason comes to an end. Very good career, but he’s threatened retirement before and it might be about that time.
Former Saints star WR
Veteran receiver
Young QBs
Idk how it was weird or pointless to bring back him back where he started, pay him 6.5 mill hoping to give their young QB room a veteran presence in a lack luster WR room.
Saints entered the off season with less than 10 mill in cap space for 2025 and already 12 mill over for next season.
Teams with cap hell problems usually need to take fliers on guys like Brandin Cooks hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
The sentimental value of bringing back a guy who started there, OK I guess, but Olave and Shaheed were plenty established and a team with terrible cap problems and no chance of winning this year doesn’t make a ton of sense to spend money on a 32-year old receiver.
He signed a
2 year 13 mill contract
7.75 guaranteed that included at 4.8 signing bonus
So really it was a 2 year 7.75 mill deal and if he performed he could earn another 5.25
Olave had the previous two seasons cut short by concussion issues and has 4 confirmed concussions in 2022, 2023, and two in 2024. It’s nice to see him healthy but say “established” comes with an *
Shaheed the most yards shaheed has had in 729 back in 2023. He was also a complimentary piece in NO starting 6 and 8 games his first two years and only played 6 games last year. Through 9 games he only had 499 with the saints
Again I don’t see the weird and pointless of cooks contract given
It’s cheap
Veteran presence amongst a lack luster group
Young QBs
Nostalgia purposes
It made sense to take a flier
Texans did something similar when they signed Robert Woods to a similar contract Strouds 1st year.
The Texans that year had a much greener receiver room. Anyway, for most teams I would agree with your reasoning enough, but for a team that’s had to constantly push money into the future, a few million for veteran presence and nostalgia strikes me as wasteful, especially when it’s an old roster that isn’t exactly lacking in veterans in the locker room.
It’s more so the young QB aspect as Rattler Shough and the other guy idk if he’s around aren’t exactly grizzled veterans
And Olave in his 4th year
Shaheed in his 4th
Johnson in his 6th
Arent that much greener
Saints trying to fool the Falcons coaching staff who probably won’t realize he’s not around until the second half.
Best landing spots:
Jets
Steelers
Raiders
Titans
Giants
Bills might be the best fit of all
Maybe Bills have a weird WR situation though
Weird meaning they have no #1 and throw the ball to whoever is open? It works, but they have injuries among the key receivers and main TE and could use another option.
Bills WR thing is super weird. Any given Sunday they’ll “Coach’s Decision” bench 1-2 wideouts and then their main guy will maybe have 3 targets for 1 catch and 11 yards.
Other than Keon Coleman, who was disciplined for poor behaviors, the “coaches decisions” have been injury-related. Samuels can’t stay healthy and Shavers was a later addition to the roster who still needed work.
And then the other guys get next to no snaps. Moore comes to mind. Same for Samuel when healthy.
Samuel is never healthy and Moore has reportedly been nursing an injury.
Yea
Id contend that Moore and Samuel are nowhere near reliable receivers, for many reasons. They are at best depth guys. Clear outs and gadgets.
Coleman is a bust.
Gabe is what he is.
This is a team full of like 4-5’s.
Adding Cooks doesn’t really change that. And Im doubtful that he offers anything that we dont already have.
Terminator, Bills already have enough crappy WR’s. Why get another.
As I noted above, why would the Steelers go for this guy? Think about it. They traded for Jonnu Smith and can’t get him the ball. They signed Valdez-Scantling, a Rodgers guy. He’s sitting on the practice squad. How does adding this well traveled, often cut guy make sense?
Cooks best landing spot is his couch. He has been “cooked”/done for several years now.
Where are the ‘honor your contract’ people at? Teams cut players all the time. I have no problem w/ players demanding new contracts.
Such an ignorant take. The Saints did honor the contract. He is getting every guaranteed dollar that he agreed to be paid. How is this concept so difficult for people like you to understand?
So Micha was wrong for holding out then? And all the other DE’s getting multimillions this offseason?
I couldn’t care less about that situation. You insinuated that the Saints didn’t honor the contract and that’s a flat out lie.
Although, if you want to go down the Micah Parsons rabbit hole then we can certainly do that. He didn’t honor the contract he signed and that’s why he was contractually eligible to be fined.
Micha was forced to sign a rookie contract. But side by billionaires that don’t care about their franchises. Jax, Cleveland, Bengals, AZ, NYG & Jets & plenty of other failed franchise poorly run. But it’s the players fault?
He was forced to sign his contract? He should sue the NFL for billions because he would win easily if he could prove that.
For the record, I’m not siding with anyone but the truth. You lied about the Saints not honoring a contract and I called you out on that lie. Name me one contract since the beginning of the NFL players union that a team didn’t pay a player what was contractually obligated to be paid.
Every year all teams cut players in camp under contracts… Not that hard to figure out. Cooks didn’t have a chance to make his bonus.
Apparently, it is very difficult for you to figure it out. They are cut within the parameters of the contract they willfully signed.
How was Micah FORCED to sign a rookie contract?
From google: The NFL and the NFLPA agreed to the first rookie contracts in the 1968 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which established a minimum rookie salary of $9,000. Subsequent CBAs, like the 2011 agreement, have since established a new entry-level compensation system that sets rookie salaries based on draft position, with contracts for first-round picks including a four-year term and a fifth-year team option.
No choies but to sign.
Those are parameters set by the owners and the players. He wasn’t “forced” to sign anything. He could have gone into real estate or some other profession but he chose to play football. You can’t seriously be this dense.
Keep paying your losing franchise $10K a year for another sub 500 season. I have no problems w/ employees asking for a raise. Do you turn down raises or promotions?
This conversation could dearly use a meme of a guy stepping on a rake right about now. I sincerely hope your brain is studied some day.
Have a good one…
Keep whining about players and their contracts.
Such an ignorant take. The Saints did honor the contract. He is getting every guaranteed dollar that he agreed to be paid. How is this concept so difficult for people like you to understand?
Such an ignorant take. The Saints did honor the contract. He is getting every guaranteed dollar that he agreed to be paid. How is this concept so difficult for people like you to understand?
This dude used to be good….like all old wide receivers, he has a hard time getting open anymore, separation is everything
If an older receiver has very good hands, he can last. Art Monk, Jerry Rice, DeAndre Hopkins. Cooks doesn’t drop too many balls, but you’re right, his special talent was speed.
I won’t forget how he was forced to leave Super Bowl game against Eagles that was a rather high scoring game.