Unheralded Dylan Cook goes from college QB to making Steelers' roster as backup tackle
8/30/2023 Dylan Cook learned he had made the Pittsburgh Steelers’ initial 53-man roster the same way the average fan did Tuesday afternoon. He saw it posted on the team website. The 25-year-old tackle and first-year player from Montana spent the day playing a FIFA soccer video game to pass the time until the 4 p.
m. deadline came and went. “I probably played for five hours,” Cook said Wednesday.
“That’s all I did and hung out with my dog. ” When Cook’s phone didn’t ring, he sensed he had made the roster. What he saw posted online made it official.
Signed by the Steelers in May three days after being released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cook earned the ninth and last spot on the offensive line, becoming the only undrafted first-year player to make the cut. “This means a lot,” Cook said. “As far as the journey, it’s just another step in what I really had planned for myself.
I had really high ambitions once I started playing college football. The work is really just beginning now. ” Cook is the rare offensive tackle who started his college career as a quarterback.
He is listed as 6-foot-5, 280 pounds, although other websites have his weight at 305 pounds. Either way, he is among the lightest linemen on the Steelers’ roster. Cook grew up in Butte, Mont.
, and after passing for more than 3,000 yards as a senior, he enrolled at Montana State-Northern, an NAIA school. After seeing limited playing time in his first two seasons, Cook decided to transfer. He wanted to attend Montana, an FCS school.
Trouble was, he didn’t get a scholarship offer. Cook was contemplating whether to keep playing football when he received a direct message on Twitter from a Montana assistant coach. Impressed by Cook’s height, the coach offered a walk-on spot on the Montana offensive line.
“I said, ‘When do you want me there?’” Cook said. “I’ll show up whenever. No thought at all.
I bought in from the jump. ” Cook had to sit out a year as a transfer, and he added 25-30 pounds to his frame. He started 23 of 27 games over the next three seasons and signed with Tampa Bay as an undrafted free agent last year.
He spent much of the 2022 season on the practice squad and re-signed with the Bucs in January. When Tampa Bay signed some players from its rookie tryout camp in May, Cook was released. “For them to release me after three days of football was a tough shake,” he said.
“All you can do is keep pushing. ” The Steelers added Cook to provide depth at four spots on the offensive line. Although he played right tackle at Montana, Cook can play left tackle and both guard spots.
He played all four positions during summer workouts and training camp. “He got continually better,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “He got on a moving train in terms of when we acquired him.
I like to see guys acclimate themselves to an ongoing developmental group, and he did that nicely and particularly down the stretch when he showed position flexibility. ” Cook played both tackle spots in the preseason opener, logged all of his 31 snaps at right tackle in the second game and split time between right tackle and left guard in the finale at Atlanta. Still, Cook wasn’t expecting the Steelers to keep him over six-year vet Le’Raven Clark.
Even when Clark was cut Sunday, Cook wasn’t certain he would make the team. “I can’t look at you with a straight face and say that,” Cook said. “Maybe looking back, but during the day it was pretty stressful.
” Cook’s stay on the 53-man roster is far from secure. The Steelers could sign a veteran tackle to upgrade the position before the season opener. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a masters in public administration, Cook is preparing for any scenario in case football doesn’t work out.
“I don’t plan on just sitting on my butt,” he said. “Hopefully, the plan ends with me being financially stable and my family financially stable, us being happy and healthy. ” For now, Cook is both.
And that’s enough. “I just come out every day ready to work and put my best foot forward,” he said. .