Mel Kiper Jr. took Connor Cook to task on Monday for the Michigan State quarterback’s decision to skip the Senior Bowl. He thinks it will hurt Cook’s draft status and made a comparison that could potentially spell bad news.
Kiper Jr., speaking on a conference call with reporters (h/t Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press), thinks Cook needs a tremendous showing at the combine to avoid falling out of the first round. That’s the good news.
The bad news is he compared Cook’s situation to that of A.J. McCarron’s from 2014. Cook and his camp decided to keep him out of the Senior Bowl, like McCarron did, after injuring his shoulder late in the season:
“I know, coming back from the injury, that was a decision,” Kiper said. “A.J. McCarron made that same decision and went in the fifth round when he passed on the Senior Bowl.
It’s important to remember that the legendary draft pundit works for ESPN and not your team’s front office. But he’s often on point when it comes to evaluating NFL talent and is one of the most plugged-in guys in the industry.
Furthermore, there is a wide gap in opinion about Cook’s potential as an NFL quarterback to begin with.
We'll know more after Combine and this could haunt me, but talking to teams, I believe, all said and done, Connor Cook is a 1st round pick.
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) February 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/JC1053/status/689996088854593537
If he had the same buzz as say, Andrew Luck or Cam Newton, the decision to skip the Senior Bowl wouldn’t be viewed as much of an issue at all. But there are questions about Cook that have yet to be answered — he’s far from a sure thing.
“When I go back and watch him, there were some passes that needed to be precise, at times, that weren’t,” Kiper Jr. said.
This is something any Michigan State fan could tell you. Cook certainly has enough arm to make big-time throws, but he’s no John Elway, either.
Not only that, but he oftentimes went long stretches during games with the Spartans when he was wildly inaccurate. In fact, in four years he never once came close to hitting the 60 percent mark as a passer, his best season coming as a sophomore when he completed 58.7 percent.
That Cook is being considered as a potential first-round pick at all speaks to the desperation level of NFL teams in need of a spark at the quarterback position. But this isn’t a Derek Carr situation, here. He is quite simply being overrated because teams need passers. We could be looking at a Jake Locker situation, given his accuracy issues.
All that said, all it takes is one desperate team in need of a passer to believe Cook’s issues are fixable.
He’s been linked to the Houston Texans, who own the No. 22 pick, and will ultimately likely be a late-first, early-second round pick when it’s all said and done.