Chiefs players got a pregame speech from an unlikely source before facing the Bengals BY SAM MCDOWELL JANUARY 04, 2024 5:30 AM

Half an hour before kickoff last Sunday, Chiefs defensive backs gathered as a group inside the locker room. The ensuing game would place them in the collective spotlight, mostly because some late-week verbal jabs from Cincinnati had already shoved them there.

But this is their typical pregame routine — surrounding one player as he provides some last-minute motivational comments before they all take the field.

On Sunday, though, the final encouragement came from someone who wouldn’t be taking the field at all.

Bryan Cook.

The Chiefs’ second-year safety has been on injured reserve since a devastating ankle injury in the third quarter of the Week 13 loss in Green Bay. In the moments he lay on Lambeau Field that early-December night, with other defensive backs dropping to a knee, you couldn’t help but wonder about his replacement.

Not just the player.

The person.

Cook was a standout at Chiefs training camp, the kind of player you could hear before you even put eyes on him. He grew comfortable, in just his second season, being the most vocal player on the field. It’s hard to quantify that impact, I’ll grant. But it’s not nothing.

Mike Edwards has been adequate filling in as a starting safety.

But the energy? The presence?

Turns out, it’s still coming from Cook.

“He’s a ‘juice man,’” safety Justin Reid said. “He’s just very vocal. He has a very contagious energy, and he brings the juice.”

A likely source when he’s in uniform. An unexpected one considering he’s not.

The team’s defensive backs, at least by outside appearances, are about as tight-knit a position group as any other in the room. The group chat is active, they say, and the conversation isn’t limited to football.

Cook has recently spent some time back home in Cincinnati with his family as he continues his rehab process. (He is not available to the media while injured, per team policy.)

Away from the team physically.

But never completely.

The defensive backs had expected to reach out to Cook, to “lift his spirits,” as Reid put it. That’s not really how it’s unfolded. Every day, without exception, Cook contacts his teammates, whether through the group chat or one-on-one conversations.

“All the time. All the time,” cornerback Joshua Williams said. “He sends messages, little quotes to keep us motivated and keep our heads right. That’s just the type of guy he is. That’s one of the reasons we go out there and play hard for our guys. We know he wants to be out there, but he still cares.”

In the early seasons of any player’s career, we’re looking for indications they belong. Indications they’ll stick around. Cook has had some this year, to be sure. You can certainly recall the defensive touchdown he scored against the Dolphins in Frankfurt, Germany, the receiving end of a Mike Edwards lateral. It’s the most memorable play of the team’s season.

But you don’t expect those signs to materialize while the player is on injured reserve.

Cook possesses the kinds of traits that the Chiefs love to tout on draft nights and during offseason programming. But he’s shown them during the toughest of personal tests.

Dying to be part of it.

While an injury prevents it.

That’s how most would look at it, right? Honestly, it’s how I accessed it in the aftermath of his injury: what it prevented.

But Cook? The actions demonstrate he’s apparently altered his thinking.

What can I still contribute?

That’s what led him to the pregame locker room before a date with Cincinnati — a date that, by the way, probably evoked some different types of emotions altogether. He was born in Cincinnati, attended high school in a nearby suburb and played at the University of Cincinnati.

Oh, and then there was the AFC Championship Game a year ago, also a date with the Bengals. He’d had a tough game, but as the Bengals were attempting to put together a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, Cook got his hands on a pass, tipping it to Williams for an interception.

So he had plenty to talk about in his pregame speech.

Yeah, well, he mentioned none of that.

“Before the game, we were really just focused on winning that game, getting into the playoffs, clinching the division, and that was it,” Williams said. “So he came in and told us to stay on that. Don’t get too focused on what the playoffs are gonna be. Play this game like it’s the playoffs.

“We took that as motivation. We used it. That’s Bryan Cook. That’s what he does. He keeps us motivated while he’s here or not here.”

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