Content available exclusively for subscribers
How did Brady Cook play last week in his first NFL start?
Okay. Not great, just okay.
Remember, we don’t grade on a curve in Jets Confidential. The NFL is not a developmental league. It’s not NFL Europe. If a player is starting, he needs to be graded as such.
He led the Jets on a nice TD drive late in the first quarter, with one of the better plays on the drive being a bootleg right pass to WR Isaiah Williams for a 25-yard gain. Perfect call by OC Tanner Engstrand for a rookie QB – a bootleg right – just has to read half the field.
This drive ended with a 9-yard TD to a wide-open WR Adanoi Mitchell. Don’t want to take anything away from Cook’s TD throw, but the Jags blew the coverage, and Mitchell was left wide open in the end zone.
The Jets only got in the end zone one more time in this game, and that was on a 24-yard TD run by Isaiah Davis off right tackle.
Cook was 22-33 for 176 yards, with 1 TD and 3 interceptions, including a baffling picks late in the game. Not sure who he was throwing to on the left side of the end zone.
“That was a poor throw by the rookie Cook,” Lageman said. “Absolutely terrible throw by the rookie passer.”
One reason Cook went undrafted was because of inconsistent accuracy at Missouri.
Aside from the throw Lageman was critical of, another inaccurate throw of note was, early second quarter, a bubble screen to Mitchell that was too high, and the Jets had to punt. This kind of throw should be a layup.
To his credit, he’s worked very hard on his accuracy since arriving in Florham Park, but he still has a ways to go.
Obviously, the Jets defense didn’t help Cook by letting Jacksonville amass a big lead early – not ideal for a rookie QB . . .
Interesting scheduling quirk – three weeks in a row the Jets face(d) teams with head coaches in their first year with teams – at Jacksonville (Liam Coen), at New Orleans (Kellen Moore), and New England (Mike Vrabel).
The Jets got blown out by a rookie HC in Jacksonville – now let’s see what they do against another rookie head coach, Kellen Moore, in New Orleans on Sunday. Obviously, Vrabel isn’t a rookie head coach, but it’s his first year lording over the Patriots.
The Jaguars are 10-4, the Saints are 4-10, but have won two in a row, knocking off two teams vying for the NFC South crown, Tampa Bay and New Orleans. New England is 11-3.
Now some will say, in relation Coen and Vrabel – “Hey, they have a quarterback.”
True, but neither QB was great last year, and they are playing much better under those new coaches.
And you could also argue the Jets had a QB under contract, who is 8-6 right now with the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers, but cut him, and decided to go with Justin Fields instead.
Fact.
This isn’t brought up much in a supposed tough media market, but the fact is, the QB they moved on from is quarterbacking a first-place team, and the Jets are in last place.
But forget the QB situation for a second. The most important thing you want from a first-year program isn’t necessarily being a Super Bowl contender, but progress as the season progresses.
Obviously, Jacksonville and New England have shown great progress, and the arrow is pointing up in New Orleans with some impressive late-season play.
Aside from special teams, it’s hard to see much progress so far under the new regime in Florham Park.
So it’s going to be important for Glenn’s team to show some progress in the last three games.
Not saying he’s on the hot-seat or anything like that, just saying that Woody, Hymie, and Ira should be looking for improvement in the last three games, and no repeats of what they saw in Jacksonville. That is fair.
That doesn’t mean going 3-0 in these games, which is highly unlikely, but clean, fundamentally sound competitive games.
Something you are seeing from the programs of the first three-year head coaches the Jets face in a row . . .
The Jets signed Hendon Hooker this week, a former Virginia Tech and Tennessee QB, who was a 2023 third-round pick of the Detroit Lions, who the Lions moved on from in August. He spent some time on the Carolina practice squad this season.
He is a strong-armed QB who needs to do a better job of going through his progressions and speed up his internal clock in the pocket. Sounds familiar.
Look, it makes sense to kick the tires on him. He has talent, and the Jets certainly will be QB shopping next off-season, so might as well throw him in the hopper.
But when the coach was asked today why they signed Hooker this week, he said, “Just in case.”
They are still evaluating the health of potential backups for this week – Tyrod Taylor (groin) and Justin Fields (knee) – so “just in case” is related to maybe needing another QB to back up Brady Cook.
But what I don’t get is why not just keep Adrian Martinez on the practice squad another week if there was a concern about Taylor/Fields’ availability. He was the backup last week. Martinez was here the entire off-season and summer, so he’s very comfortable with the system. Yes, Hooker was in Detroit, where Tanner Engstrand worked before becoming the Jets’ OC, but while Engstrand brought some of the Detroit system with him, he was not the OC in Motown, so when he put the playbook together for the Jets, it’s not exactly the same as Detroit – he’s got plenty of his own wrinkles.
So why replace the practice squad QB this week from Martinez to Hooker this week?
Not a big deal, just wondering.
I would have asked, but the press conferences are very short, and I had already asked a question about the Jets linebackers biting too hard on play-action fakes last week (opening up big passing lanes over the middle).
December 19, 2025
Premium will return by 11:30 pm (or sooner) on Sunday night from New Orleans.
