2016 NFL Draft: Connor Cook Has "First Round Arm", "Third Round Personality," According To NFL Executives

Potential future Texans quarterback Connor Cook has an image problem that just won’t go away. Scouts, executives, and fans alike perceive him to be spoiled, aloof, and possibly even a little bit narcissistic. Whether those claims have any merit or not is still obviously an unknown, but Bleacher Report "insider" Jason Cole seems to think that where there is smoke, there is fire. In fact, according to some executives that Cole has spoken to, Cook has a "first round arm, but a third round personality."

However, according to Cook’s own left tackle, Jack Conklin, his longtime quarterback was a much better leader than people give him credit for.

"I think it's people reading him wrong," he says.

Conklin explains that Michigan State votes 12 players as "Eagles," and from those, just three are voted captains. Cook was voted an Eagle, and Conklin says that the team had so many leaders that any of them could have been captains. In fact, he adds that Cook did serve as a fourth captain twice during the 2015 season.

"I think it's people trying to read into things that are not there," he says. "He's been our starting quarterback for three years. He is a leader."

There is no doubt that Connor Cook can rip a football down field with the best of them, but if he truly wants to be taken seriously as a first round prospect, he will have to answer all of the tough questions that will inevitably come up at the NFL Combine this week. Assuming his personality, football IQ, and leadership qualities all shine during his meetings with individual teams, Cook could find himself among the first quarterbacks taken in the draft later this April.