FRISCO, TEXAS — With the Pittsburgh Steelers facing some adversity at the quarterback position ahead of the 2025 season with Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen set to enter free agency in March, the quarterback position is a major need for the Black and Gold.
One way the Steelers will seemingly try to address the most important position in sports is through the NFL Draft. So far, they’re showing quite a bit of interest in Missouri quarterback Brady Cook (6017, 209).
At the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas, I spoke with Cook Saturday inside the Hyatt Regency in a 1-on-1 session, and the three-year starter for the Tigers tells me he’s met with the Steelers twice so far in the pre-draft process: here at the Shrine Bowl, and once at the Hula Bowl.
“I’ve met with the Steelers twice. I love talking to ’em,” Cook said to Steelers Depot. “I met with the Panthers twice. I’ve loved talking to them. So, there has been some good meetings. I met with the Seahawks, and those have stuck out. But at the same time, a ton of meetings. It’s early on in the process.
“We’re just getting to know each other and, and we’re talking ball. I’m sharing what I’m all about, and it’s gonna be fun, man. It’s gonna be a fun process.”
During his time in Columbia, Cook was a three-year starter for the Tigers, including the last two under head coach Eli Drinkwitz, who made an appearance at the Shrine Bowl Saturday for Day 1 of the four-day practice session. In those three years, Cook had to win a quarterback competition in two of them before solidifying himself as the starter in the bowl game win in 2023.
Across 47 games in college, Cook threw for 9,251 yards and 50 touchdowns with the Tigers, completing 773 of 1,173 passes (65.9%). He threw just 15 interceptions in his career, too, good for an interception rate of just 1.3%.
With the Tigers, Cook was a three-year captain, earning the respect of his teammates, even while battling through adversity with the quarterback competitions. Being a captain for three years, and doing so at his childhood favorite program was quite the blessing for Cook, who doesn’t take it for granted, even with his time at Missouri now over.
“That might be the thing I’m most proud of, honestly. It’s voted by your teammates, so in my opinion, it’s the greatest honor a football player can have to be voted captained by their peers,” Cook said. “To have that opportunity and honor three years in a row was huge. I felt like it was my team, and they believed in me.
“They respected me and they responded to me. So I think I was a great honor, man.”
Cook earned that respect over the two years he was battling for a starting job, and then he solidified it in 2024, doing something rather remarkable in the win over Auburn on Oct. 19. Early on in that game, Cook injured his ankle on a hip-drop tackle and needed to be taken to a local hospital in Columbia for an MRI in the back of a trainer’s pickup truck.
Once there, in full uniform in a rather surreal moment, Cook spent nearly an hour in an MRI machine, in which his ankle swelled up. After that, the doctor said that if he could get his ankle to a point where he could play, he could go back onto the field.
That happened, and Cook returned in a rather riveting moment, emerging from the tunnel to a roar, and eventually leading the Tigers on a game-winning drive to beat Auburn.
“There was doubt that’d I’d play after that. I really did not believe I was gonna be able to come back into that game until about an hour and 55 minutes into the process,” Cook said. “I did not believe just because at that point, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t run. I was falling over myself and as soon as it clicked, man, I knew we weren’t gonna lose that game, that’s for sure.
And, man, it was a crazy day.”
That moment turned the hometown kid into folk hero, similar to Marshall and Byron Leftwich all those years ago. That toughness Cook displayed resonated with his teammates, and it’s something he believes will translate to the next level, especially with the quarterbacks he studies, which includes Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Green Bay’s Jordan Love, and Buffalo’s Josh Allen.
With his resume during his time at Missouri, and the toughness he displayed as a senior battling through multiple injuries, he should hear his name called in the 2025 NFL Draft. Based on early interest from the Steelers, that could even be from Pittsburgh in the near future.
