Brandin Cooks has had a dominant training camp.
Fans have seemingly heard day after day this summer about Cooks dominance over the defense. Crisp routes, big catches, and day-after-day victories over a Texans’ defense that was supposed to be the most improved unit on the team this season.
Mills just threw back to back TD passes during red zone team drills.
One to Brown and Cooks.
Cooks is obliterating the defense today.
— DJ Bien-Aime (@Djbienaime) August 3, 2022
The talent shows on the field as well. Second-year wideout Nico Collins may have taken huge strides this off-season but it doesn’t compare to Cooks on the field. The ninth year wideout with six seasons of over 1,000 yards, all throughout appearances on four different teams, just makes everything look faster.
The routes are cleaner, the releases are quicker, and everything he does makes the game of football look easy in a way that nobody else on Houston’s roster quite can. He’s undoubtably the blue chip talent of the offense and it’s hard not to view Cooks as the best at what he does on the Texans, save a debate over where Laremy Tunsil ranks in the left tackle hierarchy.
However, the Cooks train of uncontested dominance finally came to it’s first hiccup on Wednesday on a play by rookie Derek Stingley.
The former LSU product has had a slow introduction to camp since being drafted third overall in April. The team and head coach Lovie Smith have wanted to be very conservative with Stingley’s previous Lisfranc fracture and make sure their prized rookie will be 100% when the time comes for live football.
Wednesday’s practice finally revealed to fans what they may see when Stingley is given the full green light.
Stingley just perfectly jumped a Brandin Cooks comeback route from Mills, defense absolutely erupted.
He looks great today #WeAreTexans
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) August 10, 2022
Derek Stingley just dropped a pick.
He locked up Brandin cooks on that one. Sat on the curl broke out the break and beat Cooks to the spot.
It was beautiful. pic.twitter.com/eRjh1UdQ1T
— DJ Bien-Aime (@Djbienaime) August 10, 2022
Quarterback Davis Mills fired a 10-yard comeback route to the left side line to Cooks during the team’s first offense versus defense session. Stingley was able to read Cooks and jump the route for a play that certainly would have been a pick-6 had he held onto it. It was arguably the best defensive play of the day during a practice where they frequently stopped the offense.
Stingley was drafted with the intent that the Houston Texans would one day have another lockdown corner. Flashes against high-caliber receiving talent like Cooks suggests that he just may be able to reach that ceiling.
I can't stop thinking about this play:
On the field, Brandin Cooks looks like he's in a different universe compared to the rest of the offense. Everything is faster, smoother, quicker.
If Stingley can make big plays on those types of guys, he's going to be ELITE #WeAreTexans https://t.co/3PmlhtWGwK
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) August 10, 2022
Fans will almost certainly see Stingley debut in September during the Texans’ week one game against the Indianapolis Colts.
