Cooks is coming off back-to-back seasons under 700 yards, following a seven-year stretch in which he topped 1,000 six times. He moved from a dreadful Houston offense in 2022 to a high-flying Dallas attack in 2023, and while his per-target efficiency unsurprisingly improved, Cooks drew only 5.1 targets per game in an offense that averaged 36.1 passes. CeeDee Lamb got 79 more targets (181) than second-place Jake Ferguson (102), who in turn had 21 more than Cooks (81). Eight of those 81 looks went for touchdowns, but yardage was consistently lacking apart from a 9-173-1 outburst Week 10 against the Giants (accounting for 26.3 percent of Cooks' yards for the season). The Cowboys haven't signed any veteran WRs this offseason and didn't draft one until Round 6 (Ryan Flournoy), likely leaving Cooks as the No. 2 receiver again and Jalen Tolbert as the favorite for the No. 3 job (after Michael Gallup was released). Cooks will turn 31 in September and doesn't seem especially likely to add big gains to last year's volume unless Lamb misses time with an injury.
