Cook just might be the perfect fit
It’s an NFL belief that has been uttered more often than that that defense-wins-championships stuff: You can’t win without a quarterback.
The good news for the 49ers? Their general manager thinks they have a couple of those players.
“We’ve got two darn quarterbacks that we feel good about,” Trent Baalke said last week.
The bad news for the 49ers? Baalke probably has a minority opinion.
The 49ers, of course, have Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback who was once quite good but is coming off a very bad season. And they also have Blaine Gabbert, a quarterback who took baby steps toward being good after a shockingly bad start to his career.
Still, Kaepernick and Gabbert each made eight starts in 2015 and posted similar stats. Their combined numbers would have ranked 31st in the NFL in passer rating (82.6) and 33rd in yards per attempt (6.5), which is, well, not good.
And there is also the matter of Kaepernick’s trade request, the Broncos’ interest in acquir-
ing him and Baalke’s refusal to say Kaepernick won’t be dealt.
Add it up and the 49ers obviously could stand to use at least one of their 12 picks on a quarterback in the NFL draft, which begins Thursday night.
“To me, that’s decision No. 1 as an organization,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said of the 49ers. “What are we doing at quarterback?”
The 49ers probably won’t be selecting one of the draft’s top three quarterbacks. Cal’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz almost certainly will be the first two players selected. The next option is Paxton Lynch, but Mayock is among those who believe a No. 7 pick is “probably too rich” for the Memphis alum.
It’s conceivable that the 49ers, who have the sixth pick of the second round (No. 37) could use their bounty of picks to trade back into the first round if Lynch slides, or if they covet a QB beyond the big three.
A logical late-first-round target is Michigan State’s Connor Cook, who has visited the 49ers in Santa Clara and had a private workout with the team.
Cook possesses prototypical size (6-foot-4, 217 pounds) and had plenty of production against elite-level competition. The Spartans went 34-5 with Cook as a starter, and he established records for career touchdown passes (71) and total offense (9,217) at a school that has three active NFL quarterbacks (Kirk Cousins, Drew Stanton and Brian Hoyer).
He also has experience in a pro-style offense, which helped earn him a strong endorsement from ESPN’s Jon Gruden, who met with Cook and other top prospects for his “Gruden’s QB Camp” television show.
“I love the system of football that this kid comes from,” Gruden said. “He’s not completing a bunch of pop screens and bubble screens and quick screens like all these other quarterbacks. He’s coming out of the huddle and he’s ripping it down the field …
“He’s one of the guys in this draft that made me make funny sounds when I was watching him. I would be groaning like, ‘Oh, what a throw! Ah!’ He made some jaw-dropping throws against Stanford in the Rose Bowl (in 2014). He pushes the ball down the field.”
Cook’s array of higher-degree-of-difficulty throws at least partly explains his middling completion percentage (57.5). In 2015, he ranked 90th in Division I with a careerworst completion percentage (56.1).
In addition, despite his position and experience at Michigan State, the three-year starter wasn’t voted one of the Spartans’ three team captains before his senior season. At the time, Cook said “obviously it stinks not to be captain,” but noted he was part of a 12-man leadership council. He fielded several questions on the topic at the combine and said he understood it might cause some to question his leadership skills.
“It’s an understandable question: Why wasn’t he captain?” Cook said. “I’ll just be completely honest with (NFL teams). We had a lot of leaders on that team; we had 22 seniors, I believe. We had the leadership council. If you want to go back and talk to any of my teammates and ask them if I was a great leader, they would say, ‘Yes.’ ”
Regardless, if the 49ers select Lynch, Cook or other quarterbacks such as Dak Prescott (Mississippi State), Cardale Jones (Ohio State) or Christian Hackenburg (Penn State), the rookie could have a season to adjust to the NFL.
Even if the 49ers trade Kaepernick, Gabbert showed signs he could be a serviceable placeholder in 2016 for a team that figures to be rebuilding.
In that sense, Baalke is right. The 49ers might not need a quarterback immediately, but they certainly need one to develop along with them.
“I think there’s a lot of speculation that we’re panicked and need to do something” at quarterback, Baalke said. “I don’t look at it that way. (I) feel good about the guys on our roster. Feel like we can go win some games.”