Denver Broncos: Case Cookus an intriguing dart throw at QB

The Denver Broncos held a rookie minicamp over the weekend with some tryout players in attendance. Among the handful of tryout players was a very intriguing young quarterback prospect with a memorable name — Case Cookus.

Cookus was the lone quarterback dressed for the minicamp, and he turned his tryout into a contract, at least for the rest of the offseason, as the Denver Broncos‘ QB4 behind Drew Lock/Teddy Bridgewater and Brett Rypien.

If you saw a news release about Case Cookus come across your newsfeed or Twitter timeline, you might wonder if that was just some made-up name or joke people were playing on the fans. Who the heck is Case Cookus? Why did the Denver Broncos sign him?

Cookus played his college ball at Northern Arizona where he certainly lit up the stat sheet.

Despite missing part of a season with an injury, Cookus had 105 touchdown passes for Northern Arizona and only 21 interceptions.

So he can put up big numbers in the Big Sky conference against a lower level of competition, what can this guy do against NFL players?

Well, at this point, no one really knows, which is why George Paton and the Denver Broncos are getting some really intriguing potential here.

Cookus’ only NFL experience at this point is a few months of offseason work with the New York Giants as an undrafted rookie in 2019. His work with the Giants was strictly limited to on-field work in training camp and training camp alone as the NFL did not have traditional OTAs or preseason play in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Without any actual film to go off of, the Denver Broncos are obviously trusting their college scouting here as well as what they saw in limited action at the team’s recent minicamp.

Even for a quarterback making it to the NFL from Northern Arizona, there is limited video out there of Case Cookus. You have to dig for full Northern Arizona Lumberjacks games to see this guy play, and when you find them, you see that the ball really pops out of his hands and he has the ability to get the ball to all levels of the field.

Where Cookus perhaps excels the most is at keeping the offense paced and especially running up-tempo, getting the ball out of his hands quickly, and putting it on the spot where his receivers can make plays.

The Denver Broncos (and really most NFL teams) carry a fourth quarterback throughout the offseason and most people consider those guys “camp arms”. Cookus, however, is basically a redshirt NFL rookie with some really intriguing potential.

Again, he did not have the chance to really compete in OTAs last year. He didn’t get any preseason reps to put tape out there against other fringe NFL guys to get out to NFL teams. He’s had to work his way into the league through workouts and rare opportunities like the one the Denver Broncos gave him at their rookie minicamp.

Cookus obviously impressed enough to get a contract, and will now get an opportunity to get out there on the field and actually put some things on tape over the course of time. Starting with rookie minicamp, Cookus will be able to partake in a normal menu of OTAs as well as training camp and three preseason games, where he could obviously see extensive playing time in the final week as is typical.

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With the potential he showed over a pretty massive sample in college as well as the talent the Denver Broncos have all over the roster at the skill positions, Cookus is stepping into a great situation where he can possibly stick on an NFL roster and be afforded the time to grow and maximize his potential.