Skip to main content
Larry Brown Sports Tagline. Brown Bag it, Baby.
#pounditThursday, March 28, 2024

Jack Del Rio says coaching staff talked him out of benching Connor Cook

Jack Del Rio

Why didn’t the Oakland Raiders bench struggling quarterback Connor Cook during Saturday’s playoff loss? According to coach Jack Del Rio, it’s because the coaching staff didn’t think Oakland’s abysmal offensive showing was all his fault.

Del Rio revealed that he considered putting Matt McGloin in to replace Cook at halftime of Oakland’s eventual 27-14 loss to Houston, but his coaching staff convinced him not to.

“The coaches really felt like there were other things that were kind of contributing [to Cook’s struggles], that it wasn’t going to be a big change based on changing the quarterbacks,” Del Rio said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. “So we stayed the course with it. I know [Cook] got a lot of experience in the last game, the last game-and-a-half. He did some good things, and then he did some things that he can certainly learn from.”

Cook was just 4-of-14 with 41 yards passing at halftime. It was unclear if McGloin was healthy enough to be much of an upgrade, and the Raiders didn’t give much of an update on his status either. Plus, they seemed pretty skeptical of him being capable of playing earlier in the week.

Ultimately, Cook was hindered by some drops and some bad protection, but he made a lot of bad throws. The Raiders, it sounds like, had no good options.

.

Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast!

Sports News Minute Podcast
comments powered by Disqus