Oakland Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie traded up to draft a player for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He traded up into the fourth round for quarterback prospect Connor Cook. Cook was considered a 1st-round prospect until questions about his leadership caused him to fall.
So McKenzie pounced on the chance to get himself a quality backup quarterback for Derek Carr. And if he turns out to be a real 1st-round prospect that teams passed on just because he wasn’t a team captain, McKenzie will have landed his team a great trading asset.
And Friday, McKenzie and his Raiders got their first look of what they got in the quarterback. You definitely want to make a good impression when a team trades up to get you. And from the sound of it, particularly from head coach Jack Del Rio, Cook did just that.
Head coach Jack Del Rio said, “He’s been outstanding. He comes in, had a tremendous career and is very humble. Obviously he is intelligent. He asks good questions. He’s got arm talent. Now it’s a matter of getting familiar of what we do and how we do it.”
“After having him throughout the week in meetings and then today getting a lit bit of work with some of the younger guys that are here with us this weekend,. “I think he’s off to a great start.”
Cook’s played in a pro style offense at Michigan State so the learning curve isn’t a big as it would be if he came from one of those Spread Offense programs. Therefore, he was able to take command in the huddle without his head wasn’t spinning when it was time to call the plays.
Cook told the media in a press conference after practice, “I think I can pick up on some things pretty quickly. The concepts that we run here are pretty similar to the concepts that we ran at Michigan State, just a different language.
“They might call it a ‘glock’ route, we might call it a ‘glance.’ Or we might call it a ‘comeback,’ they might call it a ‘Mars’ or whatever it is. Certain words are mixed up a little bit, but other than that I think I’ve been picking it up pretty well.”
Stay tuned as Cook is an important pick should Carr go down at some point in 2016.