Stephen Case Cookus (born October 6, 1995) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). As a true freshman at

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...

, he was named the recipient of the 2015

Jerry Rice Award The Jerry Rice Award is awarded annually in the United States to the most outstanding freshman player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports inf ...

and the STATS FCS Freshman Player of the Year Award, both of which are awarded to the most outstanding freshman player in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

. He holds the record for most combined passing and rushing touchdowns in a USFL game with 5, which he accomplished in a game vs the Michigan Panthers on June 5, 2022.

College career

2015

As a true freshman, Cookus began the season as the starting quarterback. After throwing for 3,111 yards and 37 touchdowns, he was named Freshman of the Year and was the winner of the

, which is given to the most outstanding freshman in the

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

. He was also named to the All-Big Sky First-team.

2016

In the 2016 season, Cookus started the first four games of the season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

on September 24. Against

New Mexico Highlands New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) is a public university in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Founded in 1893, it has satellite campuses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington and Roswell. NMHU has an average annual enrollment of approximate ...

, he tied school record of seven touchdown passes in a single game. For the season, he threw for 1,173 passing yards with 13 touchdowns and one interception.

2017

Cookus made a comeback season in 2017. His best game came against Cal Poly where he completed 35 of 46 passes for 406 yards and four touchdowns. For the season, he threw 275 passes on 474 attempts for 3,413 yards with 22 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Cookus took Northern Arizona to the playoffs, but lost 41–20 in the first round to San Diego after throwing 22 of 41 for 178 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Against Montana, Cookus was ejected for targeting after throwing a downfield block, a very rare occurrence since targeting is almost exclusively called against defensive players.

2018

During the second game of the season against

, Cookus once again injured his shoulder while trying to run the ball. He finished the season completing 24 passes on 34 attempts for 265 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, including an 84-yard strike to wide receiver Emmanuel Butler in the season opener.

Statistics

Professional career

New York Giants

Cookus signed with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

as an undrafted free agent on April 28, 2020. He was waived on August 2, 2020.

Denver Broncos

On May 17, 2021, Cookus signed with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

, but was waived three days later on May 20.

Minnesota Vikings

On August 2, 2021, Cookus signed with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, but was waived three days later on August 5.

Las Vegas Raiders

On August 10, 2021, Cookus signed with the

Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West divis ...

. He was waived on August 16, 2021.

Edmonton Elks

On October 20, 2021, Cookus signed with the

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

. He was released 5 days later.

Philadelphia Stars

Cookus was selected in the 12th round of the

2022 USFL Draft The 2022 USFL Draft, also known as the 2022 USFL Player Selection Meeting, was the player selection process to fill the rosters of the eight teams for the 2022 USFL season. The draft was held on February 22–23, 2022, with results released throug ...

by the Philadelphia Stars. He led the Stars into the

championship game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

and was impressive in that game until he had to leave with a broken leg.

Los Angeles Rams

On November 23, 2022, Cookus signed with the practice squad of the

Statistics

Post Season

References

External links

Edmonton Elks bio

New York Giants bio

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cookus, Case 1995 births Living people People from Thousand Oaks, California Players of American football from California Sportspeople from Ventura County, California American football quarterbacks Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football players New York Giants players Denver Broncos players Minnesota Vikings players Las Vegas Raiders players Edmonton Elks players Philadelphia Stars (2022) players Los Angeles Rams players