Brady Cook NFL Draft Interview: Leader & Winner (Interviews)
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Brady Cook NFL Draft Interview: Leader & Winner

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Missouri quarterback Brady Cook is an experienced and productive signal-caller in the 2025 NFL Draft. After battling through adversity in his first three campaigns, Cook eventually led the Tigers to 11-2 and 10-3 records as their starting quarterback. The ability to elevate an SEC program will be useful at the next level.

Cook recently spoke exclusively with The Draft Network. Cook discussed overcoming adversity at Missouri, playing for coach Elijah Drinkwitz, running a pro-style offense, his experiences at the Hula and East-West Shrine Bowls, and so much more.

JM: You enter the 2025 NFL Draft after five productive seasons at Missouri. How will you look back on your time with the Tigers?

Brady Cook: Shoot, it was an awesome journey. I can say that. Each year had its own story. I spent my first two seasons primarily as a backup. My third year, I fought through adversity and injury. That was a tough season.

Thankfully, I reached new heights at Missouri during my fourth and fifth seasons. We went 11-2 and 10-3. I think it’s a pretty cool story, man. I’m thankful for everything that happened to me at Missouri.

JM: Your ability to overcome adversity to put together a nice body of work in your fourth and fifth seasons was awesome. You spent all five seasons under the tutelage of coach Eli Drinkwitz. That's rare. What are the biggest lessons you'll take away from your time under coach Drinkwitz?

Brady Cook: He taught me how to play quarterback. Coming into college, you think you know something, but you really don’t. My first two-and-a-half years, he was our quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator, and head coach. He was the guy I learned the ropes from.

The biggest lessons have to do with adversity. He always preached that if you want to play quarterback at a high level, you need to be a battlefield commander. Adversity is going to hit. If you’re going to play quarterback, you need to learn how to deal with it.

Coach Drinkwitz taught me to move right past adversity. I learned so many lessons from him. First and foremost, his ability to coach me up at quarterback and teach me a lot of what I didn’t know about the position coming into college. 

Everything coach Drinkwitz preaches about adversity came with life lessons. As the quarterback, you have to learn how to face adversity and get through it.

JM: Coach Drinkwitz prepared you for what comes next. Former college wide receiver Kirby Moore has been your offensive coordinator for the last two seasons. How do you think playing in his offense helped prepare you for the NFL?

Brady Cook: When coach Moore came in, it put a fresh set of eyes on me and my development at quarterback. He saw where I was and coached me up. He changed the game for us. He really did.

Coach Moore taught me the importance of getting your playmakers the ball. We had guys like Theo Wease Jr. and Luther Burden III. We prioritized getting them the football these past two seasons. That’s important.

That’s something quarterbacks can always learn to do at a higher level. At the end of the day, you’re surrounded by a lot of weapons in the NFL. You have to get them the ball, period.

I learned a lot from coach Moore on the preparation side as well. How he treated me in the room and the collaboration we had, it really felt like a partnership. I had a voice on our offense. Coach Moore always said that’s how it’s supposed to be in the NFL. The quarterback and OC work together in tandem. That’s how we worked together.

These last two seasons at Missouri brought us a lot of success because of the way we worked together. The way we met throughout the week, going over the call sheet together, going over plays we both liked or didn’t like for that week, that was all a part of our process.

JM: It sounds like you have a special relationship with coach Moore. What sort of responsibilities did you have at the line of scrimmage? I think that speaks to your ability to run a pro-style offense. 

Brady Cook: I was able to run coach Moore’s offense very, very fluidly. There were a lot of checks that were my responsibility. I had man and zone [coverage] checks in the passing game. I would audible passes to runs based on the defensive front. I handled all of that at the line of scrimmage.

I would slide pass protection and change those calls as necessary. We were an outside-zone team. If I wanted to flip our outside zone calls the other way and let Cody Schrader through the open B-gap instead, I did that.

We worked on a ton of concepts over these past two seasons. By the end of it, I had a terrific grasp of our offense. It came to a point where I was very comfortable operating on Saturdays. That’s when we played our best football.

JM: It was evident on tape. So as a quarterback who had a lot of freedom within the offense, how do you balance being aggressive with taking what the defense gives you?

Brady Cook: Playing quarterback is a game of balance. Something a lot of quarterbacks live by, I know I do, is you’ll never go broke taking a profit. If the defense gives you something, you take it.

And when you can, you beat them over the top with something deep and make them pay for being aggressive. Striking that balance is key. When you have weapons and playmakers, those opportunities to take shots will arise.

It goes both ways. If they’re giving our playmakers free access, we’ll hit the easy ones underneath. You take the free ones when you can. You never get too greedy. There’s a fine balance to it. 

JM: That’s a terrific breakdown. You recently participated in both the Hula Bowl and East-West Shrine Bowl. What were those experiences like?

Brady Cook: It was great. I went to the Hula Bowl first, and then I went to the Shrine Bowl. Playing in those two all-star games, first of all, it was a great opportunity to learn from NFL coaches. The opportunity to be around other prospects in this draft class was awesome. There were a lot of high-level players in attendance.

I got to learn NFL offenses for a week. Going through the meeting and practice process, it was a super helpful experience. Calling new plays and repping them, we learned a lot while repping all week in practice, and in the game too.

The opportunity to meet with NFL teams along the way was great. It serves as a great springboard throughout the pre-draft process. I got my feet wet.

JM: Between the two events, you probably met with all 32 NFL teams.

Brady Cook: It was a lot of fun. You’re up early for meetings, you go practice, and then you’re meeting with teams again after practice. The next thing you know, you’re meeting with NFL teams until the clock nearly strikes midnight. We had some long days (laughs).

Talking to scouts and different teams was an awesome opportunity. We shared experiences. They learned about who I am and why I play football. We talked ball, what went well, what went bad for me at Missouri. We talked about successes and failures.

I’m thankful for the opportunities at the Hula and East-West Shrine bowls. It was super cool.

I had really good meetings with the Steelers and Panthers. I met with the Titans a couple of times. Obviously, it’s early on in the process at the Hula and Shrine. You don’t want to look too much into those.

Approaching the NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Day circuit, that’s when things really start to pick up. I had some great meetings. It was fun to share with these teams what I’m all about.

JM: There’s a lot of interest in you and it’s easy to see why. We've appreciated your time today. This has been an outstanding conversation. What kind of quarterback is Brady Cook going to be at the next level?

Brady Cook: I’m going to be a leader and a winner, whatever that looks like. I’m going to be a leader in everything I do, and a winner in everything I do. I know I’m going to bring a lot of value to an NFL team. I know that these next 12-16 months are the longest years in an NFL player’s career. I’m leaning into it. I’m excited to see where it takes me.

I’m going to play in this league for a long time. I’m looking forward to it.



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