(SportsRadio 610) - Veteran wide receiver Brandon Cooks was back on the Texans practice field Wednesday morning.
The nine-year veteran stretched with the team, but did not participate in individual drills or team activities. Although, Wednesday is usually a rest day for him and other veterans including Jerry Hughes.
Cooks, the team's leading receiver in targets, receptions and yards, is back after missing practices all of last week and last Thursday nights loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, for which the team cited as personal reasons.
The Texans reportedly fielded a number of calls from teams last week, ahead of the NFL’s trade deadline regarding Cooks, though nothing materialized and Cooks seemed to take his frustrations out on Twitter.
Meanwhile, according to receiver Chris Moore, Cooks’ absence from last weeks game was understood by the rest of the receiver room.
"We’ve got a bunch of pros in the receiving room. We didn’t know what the situation was going to be,” Moore said. "It’s just the business of the NFL. We all just prepared for us to all to be ready to go and play every position."
The Texans have kept Cooks unavailable to the media since prior to the trade deadline, missing his regularly availability the last two weeks at the podium.
Exactly how offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton and the Texans choose to work Cooks back into the game plan going forward, after using veteran receivers Chris’s Moore and Phillip Dorsett in a larger role last week against the Eagles, remains to be seen.
Moore made one thing fairly clear this week regarding the role Cooks plays and why having him back to finish out the season is key for them.
"He’s our leader in our receiver room. It’s very important. We love him. He’s a great player, he’s a great leader, he’s a great man," Moore said. "When all that stuff happened, we all know or at least most of us because we’ve all been here (in the NFL) a while, that’s just part of the business. You never know really what’s going to happen and either way we’re happy to have him back and see him in the building."
The Texans got second-year receiver Nico Collins (groin) back on the field Wednesday as well.
Collins, second on the team in receiving yards (305), had been dealing with a groin injury he suffered during the Texans week 7 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Texans head coach Lovie Smith said getting depth back in the receiver core will be a big boost.
"Nico Collins is one of our best players too," Smith said. "Big, good target, that has to help."
The Texans also got defensive tackle Maliek Collins (chest) back Wednesday, who suffered a chest injury against the Raiders and missed the last two games against the Titans and Eagles.
Collins is a key piece to helping the Texans figure out how to slow down opponents' run games.
"To be able to get Maliek back is huge for us, we’ve missed him an awful lot," Smith said. "We’ve started that process, of course he was limited today but he’s getting closer to playing."
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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