Cowboys place Brandin Cooks on injured reserve, will miss at least four games

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The Dallas Cowboys are placing Brandin Cooks on injured reserve which means he will miss at least four games.

The Dallas Cowboys are dealing with a litany of injuries these days and on Saturday news on that front intensified. While it had been somewhat speculated up until then, things were made official when the team announced among the elevation news for Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers that wide receiver Brandin Cooks is headed to injured reserve.

The @dallascowboys transactions before Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh:

Reserve/Injured:
WR Brandin Cooks

Signed to 53-man roster from practice squad:
LB Nick Vigil

Elevated from practice squad:
DE Carl Lawson
CB Amani Oruwariye

— Dallas Cowboys Public Relations (@DallasCowboysPR) October 5, 2024

Word emerged this past week that Cooks would at the very least miss Sunday’s game as a result of an infection that developed following a procedure he had after last week’s Thursday win against the New York Giants. Clearly things evolved a bit from that point to now.

Injured reserve rules dictate that players placed on it must miss four games so even though Dallas is on bye in two weeks, Cooks will miss four contests at minimum:

• at Pittsburgh Steelers
• Detroit Lions
• BYE
• at San Francisco 49ers
• at Atlanta Falcons

The earliest Cooks can return is on November 10th when the Cowboys host the Philadelphia Eagles. Making do without him until then will be challenging to say the least.

Dallas obviously has one of the best wide receivers in the game in CeeDee Lamb, but they are relatively unproven beyond him. Jalen Tolbert has had moments this season, as has KaVonate Turpin, but Jalen Brooks is someone we are still waiting to see take the next step. Rookie Ryan Flournoy will be asked to do more, it would also behoove the Cowboys to consider adding external talent.

That last point was true when the offseason began but as we have noted many times over the calendar year, the Cowboys did what they wanted to do and those decisions (or lack of them) have consequences. Here they are.