The Cincinnati Bengals knew they needed to upgrade their safety position this offseason, and they couldn't have signed a much better leader to fill that role than Bryan Cook. He's a two-time Super Bowl champ from his Chiefs days, and one of the best tacklers in the sport.
While it's been a bummer in recent years to see the post-Jessie Bates era of the Bengals safety room be the butt of jokes (thanks for nothing, Geno Stone), it's all the more cathartic that Cook is in orange, black and white Stripes.
But don't let that stop half-baked, doing-it-to-do-it think pieces on the NFL's most overpaid players, never mind featuring Cook among said players. Buckle up, y'all. This is about to get good.
Cook is about to cook his critics during his maiden homecoming season in Cincinnati
...And I'm about to cook this particular Bryan Cook critic in my own right. The Sporting News' Daniel Mader had the unenviable task of cooking up an "All-Overpaid Team" consisting of one starting player at each position on the field. Or that was the aim as far as I could tell.
Cook's rather modest three-year, $40.25 million contract, at only $13.4 million per year, is uhh...13th-priciest amongst all safeties.
But OK. Let's roll with it. What did Mr. Mader have to say about our boy Bryan, a Cincinnati native who'll be pivotal to delivering the first-ever Super Bowl win to the Queen City? Here goes:
"Cook's pedigree from four years with the Chiefs may be strong, but he also hasn't done much to justify becoming one of the NFL's higher-paid safeties. Most of the highest-paid safeties in the league, like Antoine Winfield Jr., Kyle Hamilton and Jessie Bates III, are well-regarded because they're true difference-makers in a secondary, whether due to versatility or a knack for big plays. Cook isn't quite making as much as those names, but he is making a lot for a player with three interceptions, 15 passes defended and one sack over four NFL seasons. Cincinnati has dealt with secondary issues for years, so perhaps Cook can shore up some of the issues. If he's the same player he was in Kansas City, though, his $13.4 million AAV may not age well."
Gee. being able to hold one's own in a scheme as complex as Steve Spagnuolo's in Kansas City, being a member of two Super Bowl-winning teams sure seems like a good pedigree to me!
Not versatile, eh? Speaking of Spags' system, let's look at Cook's regular-season PFF snap count from his Chiefs tenure, shall we?
- Defensive line: 46 snaps
- Box safety: 680 snaps
- Free safety: 1,665 snaps
- Slot cornerback: 355 snaps
- Boundary cornerback: 17 snaps
Oh, and the supposed lack of ball production? Cook had six passes defensed last year and a by-far, career-best PFF coverage grade of 83.0, which ranked third among all safeties. Just behind Kyle Hamilton, in fact. The season prior, Cook yielded only an 87.6 passer rating.
Can you believe this guy? Skimming the most basic box score stats of *checks notes* interceptions, pass breakups, and sacks?
Get real, homie.
I'll keep going. Over that same span of time (2024-25), by PFF's count, Cook has missed only 10 tackles. He's credited with 163 total tackles. That's a miss rate of only 6.1%. He's legitimately one of the best tacklers in all of football. Pretty sure tackling is the primary objective for a defender.
Like...you don't have to write about a player if you're not willing to do research on him. Ya know? These Cook takes comprise the type of analysis that kills credibility on an Internet byline.
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