Elijah Stephen Cooks (born October 13, 1998) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

he played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Nevada Wolf Pack before transferring to the San Jose State Spartans and was signed as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

by the Jaguars after the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

Early life

Born in

Santa Maria, California Santa Maria (Spanish language, Spanish for "Mary, mother of Jesus, St. Mary") is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, it is approximately northwest o ...

, Cooks grew up there and initially attended St. Joseph High School, where he played football and basketball. Midway through his tenth grade year, Cooks moved to Atascadero and transferred to Atascadero High School. As a senior at Atascadero in 2016, Cooks tallied 56 catches for 966 yards and 15 touchdowns, winning the Pac 5 Offensive Player of the Year award.

College career

Nevada

Cooks committed to play football for the University of Nevada at Reno on February 1, 2017. He chose Nevada over

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

, Fresno State, and San Jose State, the team he later played for. In five seasons at Nevada from 2017 to 2021, Cooks had 115 receptions for 1,478 yards and 18 touchdowns. Having played 35 games from 2017 to 2019, Cooks sat out all of 2020 due to a shoulder injury. In 2021, Cooks played in three games before a season-ending injury. Cooks also briefly joined the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team in the 2017–18 season as a temporary replacement for an injured player. Cooks played four games, averaging one minute per game.

San Jose State

After five years with Nevada, Cooks moved on to

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

as a graduate transfer. It's at San Jose State where he had his most productive year, garnering selection to the first-team All- MW.

College statistics

Professional career

Jacksonville Jaguars

After not being drafted in the

, Cooks signed with the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...

as an

on May 1, 2023. On August 29, 2023, the Jaguars announced that he had made the initial 53-man roster. On August 27, 2024, Cooks was waived by the Jaguars and re-signed to the practice squad.

Philadelphia Eagles

On January 14, 2025, the

signed Cooks to the practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract on February 14, 2025.

References

External links

Nevada Wolf Pack bio

San Jose State Spartans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooks, Elijah Living people 1998 births Sportspeople from Santa Maria, California Players of American football from Santa Barbara County, California Players of American football from San Luis Obispo County, California American football wide receivers Nevada Wolf Pack football players San Jose State Spartans football players Jacksonville Jaguars players Philadelphia Eagles players People from Atascadero, California Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball players Basketball players from Santa Barbara County, California