Connor Cook’s Biggest Flaw May Be Just What The Raiders Need

Connor Cook is making history as the first NFL rookie to get his first start in the postseason and his biggest perceived flaw may be just what this team needs to pull out a win.

Many thought Oakland Raiders quarterback Connor Cook was slated to be a first round pick after a solid career at Michigan State. With a couple of Big Ten Championships, and wins in the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl on his resume, Cook developed a reputation for playing big in big games. And yet, despite his stats and the records he broke as a Spartan, he tumbled way down the draft board.

Ultimately, he was taken by GM Reggie McKenzie and the Raiders in the fourth round. And the reason most cited for his draft day slide has been mainy attributed to something that could very well be Oakland’s salvation in their playoff game with Houston – his cockiness and arrogance.

Cook’s attitude and character were the subject of much discussion and debate in the run up to the Draft. A lot of anonymous sources crawled out of the woodwork to take issue with Cook’s attitude, the fact that he wasn’t the captain of his squad, his “snub” of Archie Manning, and a whole host of other things.

The general consensus about Cook prior to the draft was that he was cocky, arrogant, a bad dude, and nobody liked him. Of course, since being drafted, he’s been a model citizen, good teammate, and there hasn’t been a single whiff of an attitude problem.

Perhaps the slide down the draft board humbled him, or perhaps his character concerns were a little overinflated to begin with.

But here’s the thing – to make it in the NFL, a player needs to have a certain level of cockiness and arrogance. To thrive, player needs to carry themselves with some swagger.

Look around at the landscape of NFL starting quarterbacks. Tom Brady. Ben Roethlisberger. Philip Rivers. Aaron Rodgers. Russell Wilson. Cam Newton. Matthew Stafford. Matt Ryan – if you go down the entire list, can you really say that these guys don’t all have some cockiness to them? That they aren’t in the least bit arrogant?

More from Las Vegas Raiders News

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• Raiders: Bryan Edwards out, Henry Ruggs doubtful for Sunday
• Raiders: Damon Arnette re-injures thumb, could be headed to IR
• Raiders fall short in letdown Week 3 loss to the New England Patriots
• Raiders: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 3 at New England Patriots

And you know what? They have to have that arrogance and cockiness. They have to believe that they’re the best. That they can make any throw at any time. For better or for worse, quarterbacks will always get an inordinate amount of the praise when things go well and an inordinate amount of the blame when they don’t.

And they have to develop a thick skin to withstand the slings and arrows, as well as develop a certain cockiness about themselves to cope. When it comes to the likes of Brady, Stafford, Newton and the like, that cockiness and arrogance is seen as a positive trait. It’s called leadership by many.

And that is something the Raiders did not have last week in Denver. In looking at the two quarterbacks side by side, you would have thought that Matt McGloin was the wet behind the ears rookie getting his first taste of NFL action.

He was a hot mess from the start and didn’t get any better until he was taken out of the game with an injury.

McGloin – good guy with a real inspiring story – wasn’t able to lead this Raiders team anywhere. The lack of any offensive movement with playmakers like Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, Latavius Murray, Jalen Richard, and Clive Walford on your team is downright shameful.

But McGloin looked overwhelmed. Overmatched. And completely out of his depth. It’s not much of a surprise then, that this offense looked disjointed, out of sync, and – well – pretty terrible, quite frankly.

Now, contrast that with how the offense looked when Cook took over for McGloin. No, they didn’t light it up. But they were better. They moved the ball a bit more. Under McGloin, the Raiders amassed a whopping total of 32 yards of offense. 32. On 20 plays.

If you’re scoring at home, that works out to an amazing total of 1.6 yards per play.

With Cook under center, the Raiders accumulated 189 yards of offense on 30 plays – which works out to a far better 6.3 yards per play. They also scored their only touchdown of the day – Cook’s first as a pro – on a 32 yard strike to Cooper.

All in all, it was a pathetically anemic showing by the offense overall – not to mention a big, fat no-show by the defense – but with Cook under center, the offense at least, showed some signs of life.

And part of the reason for that is because Cook came out with a certain swagger. He didn’t look intimidated. He didn’t look like the game was too big for him. He just came out and played ball. And that is thanks, in part, to that arrogance he has – a trait many thought was toxic and precipitated his slide down the draft board.

He made plenty of mistakes in that game, to be sure. They’re mistakes most rookies tend to make. But he played loose. Unlike McGloin, he didn’t seem tight or completely overwhelmed. And against a good Broncos pass defense – ranked first in the NFL – Cook completed 67 percent of his passes for 150 yards and a touchdown.

It was an ugly game from top to bottom for the team as a whole. But Cook showed a little spark and showed that maybe, just maybe, he has those intangibles so many people claimed he didn’t have. That maybe, his cockiness and arrogance – his biggest character flaws according to many – might actually serve him, and the team well.

McKenzie gave up draft picks to move up so he could take Cook in the fourth round. If you’ve followed the Raiders on McKenzie’s watch, you know just how unprecedented that is. Oakland’s GM hoards draft picks like a certain President-Elect hoards spray tan and gold plated toilet seats.

But he obviously saw something in Cook that helped him decide it was the right move. Cook has the physical tools, that much most people can agree on. But McKenzie obviously saw something in his character that didn’t set off the red flags and didn’t necessarily jibe with what all of the people “in the know” apparently saw.

Next: Raiders Have No Choice But To Let It All Hang Out

Yeah, Cook may come off as a little bit arrogant or cocky on the field. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Having a certain level of arrogance or swagger can lead players to do tremendous and even unexpected things — like win a game they’re supposed to lose.

He showed some spark against Denver. If he can cut down on his mistakes and lead the Raiders with that same swagger, the rest of the team will feed on it. And it will, at the very least, give them a puncher’s chance – which is more than anybody “in the know” is giving them at this point.