By Barry Marks
Houston Texans coach and GM Bill O’Brien is trying to make it up to his fans for trading away DeAndre Hopkins.
The Los Angeles Rams are trading Brandin Cooks and a future fourth-round pick to the Texans in exchange for a second-round pick this year.
Cooks, 26, is the latest standout player to be sent packing by Los Angeles after star running back Todd Gurley was released last month. The 5-10, 183-pound target served as a key deep threat in the Rams’ run to Super Bowl LIII in the 2018 season, catching 80 passes for 1,204 yards and five touchdowns. But he was targeted significantly less often in 2019 and recorded just 42 catches for 583 yards and two scores.
Cooks signed a five-year, $81 million contract extension with the Rams in July 2018, several months after being acquired in a trade from the New England Patriots.
The former first-round pick has now been traded three times in his six-year career, as he also had short stints with the New Orleans Saints (three seasons) and Patriots (one season).
The Texans traded Hopkins, the three-time all-pro pass catcher, to the Arizona Cardinals in March. Houston also signed slot receiver Randall Cobb to join Will Fuller and Kenny Stills, both of whom have contracts set to expire after this seas
