The Houston Texans agreed to trade wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday evening in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round draft pick and a 2024 sixth-round draft pick.
The trade did not directly involve the Denver Broncos, but the Cooks swap could have implications for general manager George Paton.
First, this obviously means the Broncos won’t be landing Cooks themselves. Cooks started his career with Sean Payton and he liked numerous tweets about Payton and Denver this offseason. It’s unclear if the Broncos were ever interested in potentially acquiring Cooks, but he seemed to be interested in them. Denver might have been able to afford his trade price, but probably not his salary cap hit, which is more than $12.35 million for Dallas.
Second, this presumably means the Cowboys won’t be trading for Jerry Jeudy. Dallas made an offer for Jeudy before the trade deadline last season, and they were likely among the teams who called about Jeudy again this spring. After giving up draft picks and committing cap space to Cooks, the Cowboys probably can’t afford to make another splash at WR.
Third, the Cooks swap could signal that the Broncos might not be able to fetch much for Courtland Sutton. This year, Sutton is scheduled to have a salary cap hit of $18.26 million. Some of that would be absorbed by Denver, but most of it would be acquired by his new team. Sutton (27) is younger than Cooks (29), but his production has been worse.
The Broncos might be able to land a first- or second-round pick for Jeudy in a hypothetical trade, but the team seems unlikely to get that much for Sutton. And if no team makes Denver an appealing offer, the Broncos can simply keep both receivers going into the 2023 season.
A receiver is off the board for Denver’s considerations and a potential trade partner seems to be out of the running as well. The Cooks deal might make the Broncos less likely to trade away a WR this offseason.
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