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

See Full Page