Any team lacking a true QB1 who picks number 15 or lower in 2023 nfl Draft should take a hard look at former Tennessee Volunteers signal caller hendon prostitute. He has his flaws, but on the field, they’re no worse than any of the top quarterback prospects. Yours are just different. Hooker has ideal size, mobility and arm strength, and he played in two different offenses during his college career, though one was always run-filled at Virginia Tech.
Hooker’s problem, even more than playing in Josh Heupel’s quarterback-friendly offense, is his age. She turned 25 in January. The NFL has been reluctant to draft quarterbacks that age and older for many years. The concern is both the wear and tear on a body closer to 30 than a college freshman, and also the lack of potential. At 25, a quarterback should begin to realize his potential. Teaching a player at that age the professional game would require an organization to be patient with a player until he is at least 28 years old.
Why make a serious investment in a college player in his early 20s when the option to draft someone younger and naturally be more patient is always available? Also, Hooker has a second strike against him. He tore an ACL in November 2022.
Firing Hooker is easy for front-office executives is an easy decision, unlike the risk of selecting him, which can result in firing. However, even with the red flags, Hooker is still supposedly tall on many draft boards, and will likely be a first-round pick. According to Next Gen Stats, Hooker has the second best draft score of all quarterbacks in the draft, behind only Bryce Young.
In ESPN’s Mel Kiper’s final mock draft, he has the Los Angeles Rams advance to the first round to select it. The reason for all this fuss is that Hooker is an extraordinarily talented football player.
Not the same as his late-20s QB predecessors.
Hooker is not Chris Weinke or Brandon Weeden. Those two spent a college football career playing professional baseball. They later returned to soccer and put up great stats at their respective schools. Hell, Weinke won a Heisman Trophy at Florida State. However, they spent years away from the game and benefited from loaded offenses. Hooker was on a major college football roster immediately after graduating high school and only received a fifth year of eligibility due to an airborne virus that shut down the world.
Hooker redshirted his freshman year at VT. Over the next two years, he couldn’t firmly bind himself to the starting quarterback job in an offense that averaged 43 carries per game. He didn’t start either the 2019 or 2020 season as the starter for Virginia Tech. In 2020 he rushed for over 600 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry, but couldn’t keep the QB1 job even after regaining it.
In early 2021, Hooker transferred to Tennessee. Once again, he would not be named the Week 1 starter. When starter Joe Milton was injured in Week 2, Hooker never let go of the spot after completing 71.4 percent of his passes and throwing two touchdowns.
During Hooker’s two years at Tennessee, he never threw more than three interceptions or averaged less than 9.5 yards per attempt in a season. In 2022, Hooker led Tennessee to its first double-digit winning season since 2007 and could have won the Heisman Trophy if he hadn’t suffered that ACL injury in the penultimate game of the regular season.
Tennessee’s offense was a weekly highlight, led by Hooker putting the ball in the pass catchers’ number, hip, high point, wherever needed on deep passes. He also continued to be a significant contributor in the running game with 430 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.
Just as he played in 2022, Hooker isn’t perfect. Heupel’s offense only requires one quarterback to read the middle of the field, so Hooker will have to get comfortable going further on his progressions. Also, his intermediate accuracy needs work, arguably the most important depth to master in the NFL.
For whatever work you need at 25, don’t forget that Hooker pulled off a Patrick Mahomes moment last season. He got Tennessee into scoring position in just 15 seconds, allowing the Vols to defeat Alabama for the first time since 2006, the year before Nick Saban took over as head coach.
For those who want to walk away from Hooker because of his age, put off by a flaw in his game or an injury he shouldn’t keep you healthy for week 1, YoHowever, it seems that the NFL is well aware of the talent that Hooker possesses. Sor fans out there of teams drafting in the middle of the first round that need a quarterback, rub your lucky rabbit’s paw and hope your squad makes a smart decision.
