00:00It may have taken a few hours, but the Bengals have a new safety and he's here to save his
00:06hometown team.
00:07Hi again, everyone, and welcome into Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
00:10I'm James Urpene.
00:11All of our free agent breaking news is brought to you by Christian Husky of Sipsy Kline Realtors.
00:16Boom, look at this.
00:17My guy, Christian, look at that.
00:19Free agents, please.
00:21Now, free agents, please.
00:22He sent me a letter and guess what?
00:25He cares just as much as you.
00:26He's already texted me.
00:27Check him out, SipsyKline.com slash SeeHusky.
00:30Let's dive in because my, oh my, Brian Cook.
00:34Well, that's one of the five guys that I wanted the Bengals to sign, and that's one of the five
00:39guys that I predicted that they would sign.
00:41The hometown kid comes home in a huge, huge homecoming, and I couldn't feel more happy or excited about this.
00:50I don't know Brian personally, but I do know, one, he went to Mount Healthy.
00:55I do know, too, he went to the University of Cincinnati, and I do know how highly he's thought of
01:03in this city.
01:05And so for him to go to Kansas City and win two Super Bowls and get everything that he deserved
01:10and that he had coming to him after a tremendous career for the Bearcats,
01:14and he's coming off of a career year, a career year where he only missed five tackles, a year where
01:19he brought stability to achieve secondary that, let's be honest, desperately needed it.
01:25He had 52 tackles this past year, and he's just, he's caught a, I would call him a stabilizing presence
01:32at 26 years old.
01:33He'll be 27 on September 7th, has appeared in 17 games in each of the past two seasons, and look,
01:42it's just, the Bengals need stability in the secondary, and that's how I describe Brian Cook.
01:48He's a mature player.
01:50He's a smart player.
01:51He understands how to play, where to play, where to be.
01:56He's going to hit hard.
01:57He's going to bring a presence about him, and for all of the talk about leadership, and I'm going to
02:02look down at my phone if you're watching on YouTube to make sure I don't miss anything as we go
02:07here.
02:08It's very, very simple, though, and I'm going to get to the money in just a second.
02:13You need proven leaders, and Brian Cook has been there, done that.
02:17Brian Cook is the guy that helped UC go undefeated and make it to the college football playoff.
02:22Then he goes to the Chiefs and plays in huge, high-leverage games.
02:25He obviously went up against the Bengals in that AFC championship game.
02:29When I think about Brian Cook, the rookie, I think of Jamar Chase on fourth and sixth, and Joe Burrow
02:34just launching it up in double coverage, and Jamar bringing it down.
02:39Look, that was a bad play for Cook, right?
02:41Or a heck of a play for Jamar, however you want to phrase it.
02:45But this guy has just gotten better and better and better.
02:48For him to come to Cincinnati, I think he's going to be everything that they're looking for, everything that they
02:54need.
02:54I, early on, I mean, one of the earliest free agent mentions was Brian Cook, and not because of the
03:02Cincinnati tie.
03:03You didn't hear me saying that about Kobe Bryant.
03:05How many times did I mention Kobe Bryant?
03:07He went to the University of Cincinnati as well.
03:10I know Kobe Bryant as much as I know Brian Cook.
03:13Neither one, this is not just the Cincinnati trend or the Cincinnati tie, or he's a Bearcat and I'm a
03:20Bearcat.
03:20Like, it's not.
03:22I think that he can help solve this issue that the Bengals have had for years now, that have had
03:28for the last three years.
03:29You go back to Lou Anaruma at the Combine before Jesse Bates left, and he said it'll be a dark
03:34day if we lose Jesse and Vaughn, and they lost both of them.
03:37They lost both of them, and their defense hasn't recovered, especially from the Jesse part of it.
03:41And this is the step forward that you need, a real safety, a veteran safety, a safety that's played in
03:49big games, a veteran that knows what he's doing.
03:51You look at his pro football focus scores, and that's where we'll go next, and then we'll go to the
03:56money.
03:57His pro football focus scores, they've gone up each and every year.
04:00He had an 83.5 grade this past year, 83.2 in coverage, 80.1 in run defense.
04:07That's what you want.
04:09That's what you want.
04:10According to PFF, he had 64 solo tackles.
04:1464 solo tackles.
04:1685, by the way.
04:17I was looking at his solo tackles to pro football reference.
04:19He had 85 tackles this past year, just so you know.
04:23So it's certainly higher than what I mentioned before.
04:25But the point is, stability.
04:27That's it.
04:28Not giving up big plays, making the tackles that are there.
04:30That's it.
04:31That's what you want.
04:32And that's what Brian Cook is going to bring.
04:34There were conflicting reports, as I hit my microphone, there were conflicting reports on what he signed for.
04:39But I'm going to trust my guy, Jeremy Fowler.
04:43Three years, 42.5 million dollars.
04:45Makes sense.
04:47It makes sense.
04:48This is the type of deal.
04:49You get him for under 15, you get him for 13 million in, what, 13.1 million.
04:55Essentially, this is very similar to what we saw last week.
05:00And the market started to get set with Cam Curl.
05:03And then we saw a couple other safeties go today.
05:06Started to get more set.
05:07Obviously, Kobe Bryant was one of those guys.
05:10And Minka Fitzpatrick gets traded.
05:12Brian Cook makes a ton of sense.
05:14I'm really excited about this.
05:15And the other thing that I think about is the fact that his ex-background, while the Chiefs and Bengals
05:21were rivals, his ex-background always remained at the downtown Cincinnati skyline.
05:25I love that.
05:26I love it.
05:27I just think that this is the perfect fit.
05:29He's going to help in so many ways.
05:31And I couldn't be more excited for Brian Cook to be back in Cincinnati, to be back home, and to
05:36help fix this issue.
05:40Fix the issue, Brian.
05:42Come home.
05:42Fix the issue.
05:43Come cook in Cincinnati.
05:46Because that's certainly where you belong.
05:47This is a huge signing for the Bengals.
05:49We're going to have you covered every step of the way.
05:51Everything they do.
05:52We are going to be live on Monday night.
05:55Live on Tuesday night.
05:56Live on Wednesday night.
05:57Live on Thursday night.
05:58Because guess what?
06:00The Bengals and free agency, we're here for you all week long here with Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
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06:14well.
06:15I've been giving them little details, little morsels of info ahead of time, in between videos.
06:22But the good news is, I keep looking at my phone because you just never know what's going to turn
06:25here.
06:26You just never know what's going to happen.
06:28But regardless, Brian Cook is a Bengal.
06:31It's a heck of a start.
06:32The Bengals were in on some other guys, by the way.
06:34They missed out on John Franklin Myers.
06:36They were trying to get that done.
06:37It didn't happen.
06:38The Titans were always the frontrunner with Robert Sala.
06:40And in that reunion looming, the Titans, they traded Tavondre Sweat because they thought they could get John Franklin Myers.
06:49Like, that was part of their plan.
06:51It's one of the least kept secrets at the NFL Combine.
06:56That was their plan.
06:56The Bengals tried to derail it.
06:58Other teams did as well.
06:59It didn't work.
07:00The Bengals need pass rush.
07:02But we knew they needed a safety.
07:04They got one.
07:05Brian Cook.
07:05We will keep you covered as well.
07:07All free agency long.
07:09And if you're looking for more, we have a ton of articles up at BengalsTalk.com.
07:13Support Christian at SipsyKline.com slash SeeHusky.
07:16Look, if you're thinking about moving, if you're wanting to get in the market and start looking at your dream
07:21home,
07:21Christian has you covered.
07:23And until next time, for Andrew Fox Miller, I'm James Urpene.
07:26We will definitely be talking to you again today right here on Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
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