Ryan Cook (American football player)

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Ryan Cook
Date of birth	May 8, 1983 (age 23)
Place of birth	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Position(s)	Center, Offensive Tackle
College	New Mexico
NFL Draft	2006 / Round 2/ Pick 51
Statistics	CBS.com
Team(s)
2006-present	Minnesota Vikings

Ryan Cook (born May 8, 1983) is an American football player who currently plays for the Minnesota Vikings. Perhaps will be best known for the player taken with the draft pick the Vikings received in exchange for Quarterback Daunte Culpepper. A highly criticized trade and draft pick^{[citation needed]}, the Vikings sent away their star Quarterback who was coming off a career threatening injury. The pick, while highly criticized at the time of the draft due to the fact that Cook was viewed by most people as being a mid to late round draft pick^{[citation needed]}, the Vikings selected in the second round. In his rookie season Cook went on to be inactive for much of the season, but ended the season seeing significant playing time, rotating in at right tackle, and even starting the final two games of the year. Meanwhile, Daunte Culpepper went on to defy the odds and make a quicker than expected comeback from a very serious knee injury but proved to be ineffective due to a lack of conifidence in the knee and possibly rushing back to prove his doubters wrong^{[citation needed]}. Culpepper went on to be inactive for a series of games, even requiring additional surgery to help repair the still injured knee and eventually was placed on the injured reserve.

1 College career
2 High School Career
3 Personal life
4 Notes

[edit] College career

Ryan Cook played for the University of New Mexico for the 2002-2005 seasons. Originally a walk-on, he impressed the coaches with his work ethic and ability and eventually earned a scholarship. As a sophomore he became the starter for a prestigious offensive line known as "The Hitmen."^{[citation needed]} He earned All-Mountain West Conference First Team honors at center three consecutive years, being the first center to do so in New Mexico's history . In his career, he had 416 knockdown block, averaging 8.7 for 46 games.^[1]

His senior year, he was also invited to play in the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl, and accepted the invitation to the Senior Bowl.

His younger brother Erik currently attends UNM on a football scholarship at the same position.

[edit] High School Career

Cook played Offensive Tackle for Cibola High School under head coach Ben Shultz. He was a three year letterman, and earned First Team All-City and Second Team All-State honors as a senior and Second Team All-City as a sophomore. He also accepted an invitation to play in the New Mexico North-South All-Star game.