NFL Draft 2016: Jon Gruden thinks Connor Cook is draft’s best QB
By John Buhler
Jon Gruden made an odd choice for who he thinks is the best quarterback in the 2016 Draft class on ESPN, deeming Michigan State’s Connor Cook the best.
ESPN’s Jon Gruden knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. His Gruden QB Camp before the start of every NFL Draft the last several years has been a big hit for the sports programming network.
That being said, Gruden made a bit of an out of left field sort of proclamation about who the best quarterback prospect the 2016 NFL Draft class has to offer. Gruden said on ESPN that Michigan State’s Connor Cook “is gonna be perhaps the best QB in this draft.”
With the 2016 NFL Draft coming at the end of the month (April 28-30 in Chicago), most big boards have two to three franchise quarterbacks going in the first round, not one of them is Michigan State’s Cook.
Jon Gruden just said on ESPN that Michigan State's Connor Cook "is gonna be perhaps the best QB in this draft."
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 7, 2016
Dozens of mock draft simulations have California Golden Bears’ Jared Goff and North Dakota State Bison’s Carson Wentz being drafted in the top 10. The third quarterback to possibly go in the first round is Memphis Tigers’ Paxton Lynch, who many feel that teams like the Los Angeles Rams, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Denver Broncos could use their first round picks on.
What Gruden sees in Cook that others are overlooking is three-fold: 1.) Cook has been a three-year starter for the Spartans during their peak years of the Mark Dantonio era in East Lansing. 2.) Michigan State quarterbacks have gone on to play well in the NFL in recent years (Kirk Cousins, Brian Hoyer, Drew Stanton). 3.) Cook thrives playing in cold weather, which means he doesn’t have to go to either a southern or a dome team to have success in the NFL.
Will Cook go in the first round on April 28th? Potentially, but Gruden maybe on to something in thinking that Cook could end up having more NFL success than Goff, Lynch, Wentz, and Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg. Only time will tell who emerges as the best quarterback of the 2016 NFL Draft class.
Potentially, but Gruden maybe on to something in thinking that Cook could end up having more NFL success than Goff, Lynch, Wentz, and Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg. Only time will tell who emerges as the best quarterback of the 2016 NFL Draft class.
For more posts on the 2016 NFL Draft, please check out our NFL Draft hub page.