Bryan Cook NFL Draft 2022: Scouting Report for Cincinnati Safety
HEIGHT: 6'0 3/4"
WEIGHT: 206
HAND: 8 1/2"
ARM: 31 7/8"
WINGSPAN: 6'6"
40-YARD DASH: DNP
3-CONE: DNP
SHUTTLE: DNP
VERTICAL: DNP
BROAD: DNP
POSITIVES
— Smart player who plays with very good overall awareness and vision. Shows anticipation and quick reaction to get a good jump on the balls thrown.
— Good athletic ability and speed to run in coverage. Has the top-end speed to run with most receivers, along with recovery speed to get back in phase.
— Physical player who throws his body around. Delivers a blow on contact and sticks ball carriers for limited extra yards.
— Very good in run support. Fills running lanes quickly and with good angles, while also showing patience to allow plays to develop.
NEGATIVES
— Average ball skills, can get lost with the ball in the air at times.
— Average man-coverage skills. Struggles downfield at times and can get turned around and moved from his leverage.
— Shows stiffness and below-average movement when breaking down to tackle in space, which can lead to missed tackles.
2021 STATISTICS
14 Games, 96 Tackles, 5 TFL, 1 Sack, 2 INT, 9 PBU
OVERALL
Bryan Cook is an athletic safety who has the ability to play at all three levels. He shows to play with a high football IQ, and he has awareness in both the run and pass game. He has a smooth pedal with the ability to flip his hips to turn and run with receivers downfield. When playing in the short-to-medium range, he does a very good job of getting his head around to locate and play the ball. When in man coverage, he shows quick feet to get out of his breaks, though with above-average bursts, he may need a couple steps to get going. When playing the ball, he has good timing and ball skills to play through the reception point. When playing through the reception point, he has shown the ability to properly slip routes and make a play on the ball. Cook also shows the vision to see routes develop; along with the awareness and feel to play in underneath coverage. Although he has good speed, he can struggle at times when downfield. He tends to guess on deeper developing routes, leading to him getting turned around and out of position to play the ball.
When playing the run, Cook shows the best part of his game. He's a physical and active player against the run; he has shown the ability to play from deep, as well as in the box and close to the line of scrimmage. He has good quickness to beat blocks with speed, along with the physicality and strength to shock and disengage from ball carriers. Cook does a great job tracking the ball carrier with very good leverage, while also arriving with bad intentions on the tackles. A downfall for Cook in the run game is his open-field tackling. He can be rigid when coming to balance, allowing twitchier ball carriers to make a move on him and causing missed tackles. Ultimately, Cook is a very good safety with the ability to play in multiple schemes. A good, not great, player, he can definitely add depth to a room, with the ability to be a high-level backup down the road.
GRADE: 7.2 (High-Level Backup/Potential Starter — 3rd-4th Round)
OVERALL RANK: 91
PRO COMPARISON: Jaylinn Hawkins
Written by B/R NFL Scout Cory Giddings