Brandin Cooks is quickly going to become a popular name in the NFL.
The veteran wide receiver and long-ago New Orleans Saints star is a free agent, but teams are looking into him.
That includes links overnight Thursday into Friday to the Buffalo Bills, who had WR1 DJ Moore get injured on Thursday Night Football.
The most concrete connection, though, is with the Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens worked out Cooks on Thursday, meaning they brought him into the facility to see what level he can still operate at.
The #Ravens worked out veteran WR Brandin Cooks today, per the league’s transaction wire. pic.twitter.com/W5J2I7mDND
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 17, 2026
Did Ravens Sign Brandin Cooks?
The Ravens didn’t immediately sign Cooks.
“No signing for Brandin Cooks right now, I’m told, but he’s an option for the #Ravens moving forward,” NFL insider Mike Garafolo wrote on X on Thursday evening.
The Ravens have multiple concerns at the wide receiver position right now.
The young and talented Devontez Walker has already been ruled out for Week 2 as he deals with injury.
And their top receiver, Zay Flowers, was injured after a 150-yard first half in Week 1 and is a question mark to return this week.
The Ravens do have Rashod Bateman, Elijah Sarratt, Chris Moore and LaJohntay Wester also on the active, as well as a bunch of tight ends, so Cooks isn’t a must-have.
But on some level, he’d be an insurance policy as Baltimore works through things.
The fact that he didn’t sign doesn’t automatically mean Cooks is washed up, but it does delay any opportunity for him. It also leaves the door open for him to potentially sign somewhere else, like maybe the Bills.
Brandin Cooks Career Timeline
Cooks entered the NFL as a first-round pick by the Saints in the 2014 NFL Draft out of Oregon State, the No. 20 overall pick.
He spent his first three seasons in New Orleans, including a pair of years over 1,100 yards.
He then played a single season for the New England Patriots — 1,082 more yards — before joining the Los Angeles Rams.
Cooks had a 1,204-yard season to begin with the Rams before a bumpier road in 2019.
From there, he joined the Houston Texans and has his last two 1,000-yard seasons before a third campaign in Houston started his slow decline.
Cooks spent both 2023 and 2024 with the Dallas Cowboys.
He returned to the Saints to begin 2025 and had 19 catches for 165 yards in 10 games before joining the Bills for five games and then the playoffs. He had 114 yards in the regular season for Buffalo, then nearly made the play of their season but instead was ruled not to have caught a ball that became a Broncos interception and set up the season-ending points allowed for the Bills.
Cooks has yet to sign anywhere in the 2026 offseason.
In his career, he has played 173 games and has 734 catches for 9,811 yards and 60 touchdowns.
Ex-Saints Star Given Chance by Ravens