The Saints didn’t need to beef up receiver Brandin Cooks’s contract, after all.
The original terms — $420,000 for the rest of the season and $1.69 million fully guaranteed in 2026 — were enough to keep any of the other teams from claiming Cooks on waivers. Released Saturday, Cooks cleared waivers on Monday.
That still doesn’t end the issue, even if the league has ignored repeated requests for information/clarification about the application (or not) of rules that would seem to prevent the Saints from waiving Cooks after the recent effort to deter a waivers claim by making his full 2026 salary ($5.94 million) fully guaranteed.
The Saints, after revising the Cooks contract to inflate the 2026 guarantee (while also giving themselves a window for avoiding any of it), re-revised the deal to restore the original 2026 guarantee. Relevant rules seem to indicate that the rescinded effort to deter a waivers claim prevented Cooks from being waived.
The league nevertheless allowed the Saints to waive Cooks.
The issue continues to be a hot topic among various NFL teams. It continues to be largely ignored by the media. And by the league office.
We’ve made four requests. I usually quit after three. Maybe I’ll forget to send a fifth. They’re probably hoping that’ll happen.
Cooks is now eligible to sign with any team. It’s believed that, all along, he has had one specific team in mind. A team that he possibly has been negotiating with, in violation (by the team) of the tampering rules.
Regardless, he can sign with that team (or any other) at any time — in exchange for more than $2.11 million he gave up in exchange for his freedom from the Saints. It’s hard to imagine that Cooks gave up that bird in the hand without having a contender in the bush.