Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Player Personnel Glenn Cook (8.27.25)
Opening Statement:
“So, we feel like we’re in a pretty good spot. I mean, go all the way back to before the draft, and we kind of set some goals in terms of what we wanted to do with our asset base and then also our talent base. And from our first pick with Mason (Graham) up until now with the two trades and the two claims we made, we feel like we put ourselves in a good spot to start the season. The young guys have done a great job. You know, coach just talked about the development and kind of accounting for every minute of their day, and I think you can see just the work they’ve put in across the board on both sides. And even today, Carson’s (Schwesinger) making plays on the ball, Harold (Fannin Jr.), Dillon (Gabriel) making throws. So just they will continue to grow and develop, but we feel really good about where they are and just excited to keep adding to the team and assessing where we are at the roster.”
Can you give us any insight whatsoever into where things stand in Quinshon (Judkins) at this point?
“I can’t. I’ll let Andrew (Berry) address that. You know, like, he’ll update you when the time is right, Mary Kay (Cabot), but there’s no update.”
Can I just maybe follow up on that? And I don’t know if you can answer this one either, but the fact that you went ahead and signed Raheim (Sanders) today, does that speak to whether or not Quinshon (Judkins) remains on the team?
“I think what it more speaks to is just, you know, like, in August, you may feel like you’re deep in a certain spot, and when you get to January, and you know there’s a scarcity available. So, I think looking at it, it’s us taking a step back, assessing what’s available, at the marketplace, at the cut downs and to go get a player like this who, you know, you look up in October, you might not have a chance to get. We’re just excited to get the talent, give him to the coaching staff and let them deploy him the best way they see fit.”
Can you talk about the Kenny Picket trade and how that kind of evolved?
“Yeah, I mean I think you guys know how we are just in terms of being active in that transaction when it comes to trades. And so, there’s just a lot of conversation. Andrew (Berry) will at some point loop us in and get our thoughts on it, and we just work as a group to collab on, ‘Hey, is this the best decision for us?’ You know, what level of pick or asset do we want in return? And it’s just something we work through, so at times, it happens over 24 hours. Sometimes it takes a few weeks. It was one of those things where we worked through it and felt good about the group and felt good about the room and thought it was the best decision for the team.”
Did you approach the (Las Vegas) Raiders or did the Raiders approach you?
“I think it was just like a fluid conversation across the board and it’s just obviously they had an injury and it made sense for both sides to have some conversation and consummate the trade.”
You may have 10, 13 rookies on this roster by the time of Cincinnati, how much of a priority was it to repopulate the team with young players that you weren’t able to for the last few years?
“Yeah, I think it was more about, like Kevin (Stefanski) talked a lot about, like, the competitiveness, like raising a level of competitiveness. If you’re going to talk about being a team that competes, it’s opening up the roster spots to whoever earns it. And I think that’s more of a sign of those young guys are coming in, no matter where they came from, how they were acquired and sort of earning it every day. And so, I think it just so happens that it’s a lot of young players. I wouldn’t say we intentionally said, ‘If you’re younger, you are a priority.’ But we also were open to, ‘Hey, you know, if you’re Adin Huntington, and you show us that you deserve to be on the roster, you know you’re going to be on the roster.’ So, I think it speaks more to that than some specific, like, intentionality around age.”
Glenn, is there any concern that 12 rookies is too many?
“No. You know, like Kevin (Stefanski) says, all our guys are developed, you know, from top to bottom. And I know this is a weird analogy, maybe, but Myles (Garrett) is working on something, he’s trying to develop his craft. Like I said, Adin (Huntington), he’s trying to develop this craft. So, we’ll never stop developing. You’re always going to have guys that need to work on something, and youth is something we’ll work through. We’re willing to allow the players to grow into their role on the team and understand you may take some lumps, right? Like you may take some lumps, here or there. But we try to balance thinking short term and long term, and that goes into all of it.”
Would you like to have a veteran quarterback on the practice squad?
“We’ll see. You know, we’ll work through…this is the 53 today and the 16 in terms of our practice squad. Kevin (Stefanski) and AB (Andrew Berry), I’m sure, will discuss where we sit holistically as a roster, and we’re always going to be tweaking and working through what’s the best fit for us.”
What have you seen so far of Isaiah Bond when you’re watching him in the game and out here at practice?
“Yeah, he’s coming to work every day. We have a lot of assessment and evaluations on him coming out, and we understand that he can run and make plays. And so, he’s really shown kind of who he is. And we’ll let Kevin (Stefanski) figure out how to use him and how much to use him and when to. But, you know, he’s kind of done what we’ve asked so far in terms of integrating into the team and just the overall organization.”
With the backup quarterback being a play away — you’ve been here a few years, so you know how that Ferris wheel tends to spin here, why are you guys so confident that Dillon Gabriel’s ready to step on the field?
“Yeah, I think, like Kevin (Stefanski) said, I think it’s you look at the work he’s put in every day, you take the foundation of his college career and his experience and all the things that he did in college as well. Like, you know, it’s a running eval, it’s a running resume. And so, I think he just put a lot of trust…he gained a lot of trust from the coaching staff just in terms of how he worked, and we feel good about it. So, look, every player is a play away and I know Dillon’s (Gabriel) going to prepare and put himself in position, and if he needs to be ready, he’ll be ready.”
How does the formation of the practice squad kind of factor into, you know, kind of hand in hand with what you guys do with the 53? How you use it as sort of…how you can kind of pull from it, you know, with the way that the players you have on it?
“Yeah, I think, like, you know, we have a pretty good grasp of, like, how the rules evolved and the different things you can do with it. And so, it gives you some flexibility. And Andrew’s (Berry) big about maintaining optionality across the roster. So, you know, if you can have a player on practice squad who in the past could not have had because of their accrued seasons, it does give you an opportunity to, you know, develop some depth or pull up a player who can contribute in a way that doesn’t harm the 53. So, it gives you flexibility at the end of the day and so we try to take advantage of it as much as we can.”
Kevin (Stefanski) mentioned you guys having like your evaluations on a lot of these guys, especially the two guys you signed today from the pre-draft process. But when so many players kind of enter this pool all at once from yesterday to today, how do you guys kind of go about like sorting through that? Is it almost like a big board where you have like certain guys that you remember from when you were looking at them?
“Yeah, I know. Adam (Al-Khayyal), our director of player personnel is probably looking to go home and kind of take a step back and breathe. It’s like from the start of camp, you know, like it’s a filtering process. It is pretty similar to the draft where you continue to work to that number and real pool of players who will be available and try to find the intersection of — they’re available, we like them, we can get them. And so, it is very similar. And you know, you work through, okay, how’s this team depth chart, how they’re looking, what’s the health of their roster, how have they behaved in the past in terms of maybe going heavy at a certain position, going light at a certain position and you just pull all those things together and we’re all trying to predict, ‘Hey, this guy’s going to get cut, he’s going to make it,’ and make some, you know, some fair forecast on the pool and then we dive into just evaluating. So we take all our different parts of the evaluation, the film, all the other data that we have and pull in as a team to Kevin’s (Stefanski) point, in terms of medical history, combine, pro days, all that is baked into it, which is why it’s so important for us on the front end to get it and we go after the guys we hope we can get.”
What do you like specifically about Adin Huntington?
“I mean, it’s him, right? Like, I think he embodies what we talk about when we talk about toughness, competitiveness. Our scouts from back in January were excited about him. It’s one of those things where he played in a defense, where he played on the edge. We talk about wanting to get off the ball, launch and be aggressive, play in the backfield. And you know, our scouts are really pushing like, ‘Hey, we think he can do it.’ We never know, right? And then you go through the combine process, he tests on his pro day, blows it out of the water and you just continue to get these data points that, man, this kid may have something in his body but again, we don’t know, he shows up. We don’t get in pads until August, and every day he just put it on the field, right? Like, you have to you got to take the eye in the sky at some point and trust what you see in the guy. And it’s been…you’re happy for him, right? Because, you know, there’s a lot of disappointment in not getting drafted, but for him to still be able to earn a spot and do it in the fashion that he did, I think was awesome.”
Glenn, just to go back to Isaiah (Bond) from the front office perspective, because I know Kevin’s (Stefanski) talked about a little bit about going into the decision and what made you guys comfortable with bringing him in. But just from your perspective, can you explain the reasoning of that, given, you know, his case and the other players on this roster who have had similar cases?
“Yeah. I’ll just reiterate, like, for every case, you know, Andrew (Berry) has said it, we’re going to do our work. We’re going to take everything we know about the player, everything we know about each situation, and make the best decision for the org, right? And so, I don’t think it’s any different in his case. We expect him to come in and like I said, integrate himself into the team and organization and be the best version of himself. And so far, he has done that.”
What about Gage (Larvadain)? He was obviously impressive this summer. What do you think is next for him?
“I don’t know. You know, like, a lot of it comes down to how much opportunity. He’s one of those dudes where he wants the challenge. Like, he transfers from Miami-Ohio, to go to South Carolina because he wants to compete and prove that he can play on the big stage. You know, he gets there, has a few injuries, and maybe his college season doesn’t go the way he wants it, but you saw that mindset out here every day. He didn’t say many things, but in terms of in between the white lines, like, the young man’s competitive, and so I think he will earn the reps that he deserves, and Kevin (Stefanski) and the coaching staff will deploy him the best way we can and the best way they see fit. But again, he’s just another example of when you get a chance, you know what Kevin (Stefanski) said about staying ready. You know, he was one of those guys who was just ready to take hold of all the opportunities he got.”
Obviously, Kenny’s (Pickett) the one who ended up getting dealt, but you have some quarterbacks on this roster. Did you get any phone calls on Dillon (Gabriel) or Shedeur (Sanders)?
“No, I wouldn’t get into like, we specifically got phone calls on them. Like, we took a number of calls just on trades, period, but specifically to the QBs, you’d be surprised.”
Glenn, it seemed like watching this D-line throughout training camp, like, there’s so much depth, so many guys that can create pressure. Just how happy are you guys with where that unit stands right now? Especially when you have guys like Alex (Wright) and Isaiah (McGuire), where it’s taken a couple years, but it seems like they’re really coming up.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a position that takes at some point, at some times, takes a little time to develop, and so you want as much depth as you can have. We’ll never apologize for having as many big guys on both sides of the ball as we can. So, yeah, like, today we feel good about it. Like I said, you know, August to October can look different. So, we tried to load up and have as many guys that can contribute, be versatile, play different roles up front on both sides and yeah, we feel good and are excited about that group.”
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