Why Brandin Cooks is the Texans WR to draft, not Will Fuller
By Ben Grivas
Health
Fuller
Fuller has played in 14, 10, 7 and 11 games in his first four seasons. In the past three seasons, he’s suffered from a core muscle tear, an torn ACL, two hamstring strains and a rib fracture. There aren’t many players in the league that are more injury prone than he is. You cannot count on him to play a full season, especially in the most important weeks of the season: the fantasy playoffs, since players are more likely to be injured toward the end of the year.
Cooks
Brandin Cooks has suffered five known concussions, yet miraculously, has only missed two games in the past five years. While this makes me very concerned for his brain’s health, I’m sure that this kind of abuse isn’t uncommon among NFL players. This shouldn’t be an issue to worry about while drafting. It is, however, an issue for Brandin Cooks (Brandin, if you’re reading this, nobody would blame you if you retired, it’s okay).
Conclusions
Brandin Cooks has been an elite receiver in the NFL and in fantasy for his entire career up until last season. He’s been traded twice before and his production didn’t slow down because of it. Injuries aren’t an issue for him. He has legitimate WR2 potential as the top target for Deshaun Watson. He’s a good target in drafts for his price.
Will Fuller is ridiculously boom-or-bust and ridiculously injury prone. His touchdown rate is sure to regress as he gets more targets. He won’t play a full season and it’ll be hard to know when to start him in your lineup. I don’t understand why he’s being valued the same as Brandin Cooks. Don’t chase his amazing, TD-dependent 2018 season, which was only 7 games long, because, again, he is injury prone. Do not draft him close to his ADP.
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