New Orleans Saints WR Brandin Cooks Ripped Far Too Early

The New Orleans Saints have played one game in the 2025 National Football League regular season. That's it.

While this is the case, some of the chatter of the week just a few days after the Arizona Cardinals loss already is getting a bit out of hand. It's easy to overreact when it comes to professional sports. That's arguably especially the case in football. There are just 17 games so each one arguably matters more than a single baseball game in a 162-game season, for example.

On top of that, there's roughly a whole week in between games meaning there are just days to completely dissect each contest to an intense level. If the team wins, there's a lot of positive buzz for a week. And not so much if a team loses. The Saints dropped their first game of the season and so in response, there have been some overreactions. For example, FanSided's Jerry Trotta claimed that Brandin Cooks' Week 1 performance was enough to prove the Dallas Cowboys were smart not to bring him back.

There already are some pretty big takes out there

Aug 14, 2025; Carson, CA, USA; New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks (10) during a joint practice Los Angeles Rams at the Dignity Health Sports Park. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

"Cowboys definitely made the right choice letting Brandin Cooks sign with the Saints," Trotta said. "For a 31-year-old wide receiver, Cooks got a really good deal from New Orleans. He signed a two-year contract worth $13 million, with $7.75 million fully guaranteed and a $4.8 million signing bonus. Not too shabby. Cooks finished his debut with three catches for 26 yards. It's an underwhelming stat line at face value, and it looks even worse when you consider Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler dropped back to pass 46 times. He ranked fourth on the team in targets (four) behind Chris Olave, Juwan Johnson and Rashid Shaheed.

"The Saints would have hoped for a bigger impact from one of their bigger free agent investments. However, what did they really expect? Cooks is clearly on the downswing of his career. While he missed a chunk of time with a knee injury, Cooks was outplayed by Jalen Tolbert last year. Tolbert is a player Cowboys fans would trade tomorrow if the opportunity presented itself. It would not surprise if Cooks is jumped in the Saints' target pecking order by second-year pro DeVaughn Vele before long. The 31-year-old is a fine WR4 at this stage of his career, which begs the question of why the Saints gave him $7.7 million guaranteed to be the fifth or sixth option in their passing attack."

That's a big aggressive for just one game of work. He caught three of his four targets for 26 yards. That's not explosive, by any means. But, Cooks also was voted as a team captain and is a veteran presence in a young receiver room. He was fourth on the team in targets and fourth on a team that had 214 passing yards in total. There are surely questions about the passing offense in general, but a little aggressive to have a take that big after one week. Cooks and the Saints likely will be fine. There are 16 games left.

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