Brady Cook gets the start at QB for the Jets again next week

Brady Cook will get a third straight NFL start with the Jets, this time at home.

Head coach Aaron Glenn announced on Monday that the undrafted rookie will be the quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Patriots at MetLife Stadium. Cook started the last two games, both road losses. Against the Saints on Sunday, he completed 22 of 35 passes for 188 yards while taking eight sacks, throwing an interception and fumbling once. The Jets offense did not score a touchdown in the 29-6 loss.

“Listen, there were some things in that game, and I think if you go back and watch the beginning of the game, I thought he was doing a really, really good job,” Glenn said Monday. “Man, but as the game progressed, I will say this, between Brady making some mistakes, between the protection of the O-line, between some of the concepts we had for him, all of our hands are involved in some of the mistakes that happened in the game. But I thought he did a really good job at the beginning of the game managing the game the right way.”

One of the bigger issues for Cook was holding the ball too long, and the quarterback admitted that after the game. “At the end of the day I need to get the ball out,” he said.

Glenn said he did not consider making a quarterback change during the game on Sunday despite having veteran Tyrod Taylor as the backup. Taylor, whose groin injury early in the Dec. 7 game against the Dolphins opened the door for Cook to make his NFL debut, will presumably serve as the backup again on Sunday. The status of Justin Fields, who began the season as the starting quarterback, remains unclear. Fields has not played due to discomfort in his knee that first surfaced in practice on Dec. 3 after he had been benched in favor of Taylor.

Glenn did not give a direct answer when asked if Cook is part of the Jets’ plans at quarterback beyond this season.

“I want to focus on what we are doing now and I want to focus on New England when it comes to Brady,” he said. “But the things I thought about him from the beginning haven’t changed,” Glenn said of Cook. “I think he is highly competitive, I think he is composed, I think he understands our offense. Obviously there are some things we have to do better to help him, some things he has to do better to help himself also, but all those traits we’ve talked about before are things I look forward to seeing with him continuing to improve as he continues to get these starts.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.