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Week 17 has arrived, and with that comes all sorts of injuries to deal with on top of plenty of COVID chaos, all of which has made setting fantasy football lineups really tricky. This is the fantasy championship week for most fantasy football leagues, so it's crunch time, and making the correct start/sit decisions can be the difference between winning or seeing your season come to a close.
Let's check in on the injuries for the Houston Texans wide receivers and their Week 17 Sunday afternoon game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Is Brandin Cooks playing this week on Sunday against the 49ers? Should I start Brandin Cooks if he does play? Can I still start Nico Collins? Below we take a quick look at the updated COVID status for Brandin Cooks and attempt to answer these questions.
Is Brandin Cooks Playing This Week Against the 49ers?
After being put on the COVID-19 list and missing last week's game, Brandin Cooks has been activated this week and is expected to play in Week 17 against the San Francisco 49ers.
Should I Start Brandin Cooks in Week 17 Against the 49ers?
There are a few levels to this question. For starters, Brandin Cooks tested positive for the virus, which leaves open the possibility that his experience with COVID would have an impact on his cardiovascular health. We have seen multiple players come back from a COVID absence and be honest about their struggles.
We also saw this update about Tyreek Hill after he was activated from the COVID-19 list:
Considering Brandin Cooks, like Tyreek and Lockett, uses his speed for a great deal of his value, any sapping of his energy or agility could truly hamper his value. He has been a deep-play asset for the Texans this season, but he does have the ability to win underneath, if needed, so he could still maintain some value.
Another factor working in his favor is that he is returning to face a 49ers' secondary that has been destroyed by wide receivers of late, ranking 30th in the NFL in terms of fantasy points allowed to WRs over the last four weeks. Over those last four games, the 49ers have allowed a combined 763 yards to wide receivers and six touchdowns. They have also allowed a 71.6% catch rate, which is also 30th in the NFL.
What's more, Brandin Cooks has been a favorite of Davis Mills whenever the rookie quarterback is under center. In the last two games that Mills started before Cooks went on the COVID-IR, Mills targeted the wide receiver 21 times and Cooks finished with 15 catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns against Seattle and Jacksonville. Normally, given that production and the 49ers lack of success against receivers, we would say to lock Cooks into your lineup with confidence; however, the COVID-related cardio questions still linger. As a result, we would say that Cooks is an incredibly high-ceiling player with some level of risk that makes him more of a low-end WR2/high-end WR3 this week.
Lastly, with Cooks and tight end Brevin Jordan back for this Sunday's game, Nico Collins should continue playing about 60% of the Texans' snaps and seeing about a 10-15% target share. As such, he can't be started with confidence outside of deep formats but could be an interesting DFS gamble if Cooks were in fact hampered by his bout with COVID.
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