Hendon Hooker 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Tennessee QB

Hendon Hooker, Tennessee: 6’4”, 220 pounds; RS SR.

Hendon Hooker was a four-star recruit back for Virginia Tech in 2017. Following a redshirt year and then seeing limited action as a backup the following season, Hooker certainly had some flashes over the next two years with the Hokies (197-of-312 for 2,900 yards and 22 TDs versus seven INTs passing, just under 1,000 yards and 14 TDs on 243 rush attempts).

However, his career really took off when he decided to transfer to Tennessee ahead of the 2021 season and instantly transformed the Vols offense. Through his two years at Tennessee (24 games), Hooker completed 68.8 percent of his passes for 6,080 yards 58 touchdowns compared to only five interceptions, along with another 1,046 yards and 10 TDs on the ground (270 carries).

Hooker was given the award for SEC Offensive Player of the Year, but weirdly wasn’t invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony.

Hendon Hooker scout report: Strengths

Hendon Hooker #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers scores a third quarter touchdown during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats

+ Hendon Hooker offers prototype size, arm strength and movement skills for the positional.

+ Has massive 10 and ½-inch hands to control the football.

+ Showcases the arm talent to drive the ball towards the sidelines and let it fly down the field, but can also float ball over the head of trailing defenders down the seams.

+ Beautifully drops deep balls into the bread-basket of streaking receivers several times.

+ Delivers the ball towards the upside shoulder on dig and shallow post routes in order to lead his targets away from the defenders they’re locked up with.

+ Consistently makes receivers work back down the ladder on hitch and curl routes, in order to not see the pass contested.

+ Can flip the ball to his outlets with touch and let his backs go to work.

+ Really quick to flip his base around off play-action or just getting to the opposite side of the field, in order to get the ball out.

+ Hooker looks very comfortable playing the quarterback position, in terms of the way he sees the field and translates information by the defense.

+ Whether you look at raw numbers, grading scales or the tape, he’s shown improvement every year as a starter, especially the consistent base and how quickly he sets his feet.

+ Regularly anticipates windows underneath and hits receivers just as they cross the face of defenders in zone coverage.

+ Understands how the picture will change post-snap as he sees safety rotations beforehand and is ready to get to secondary routes accordingly.

+ Willing to hang at the top of his drop and wait out deep option routes, where he and speedster WR Jalin Hyatt created magic last season because they consistently read the key defender the same way.

+ Doesn’t let many opportunities to go for big plays slip through his hands, leading to a big-time throw rate of 5.2% for his time with the Vols.

+ While the level of difficulty wasn’t particularly high on those, Hooker routinely recognized and punished defenses when their route-combination led to coverage busts.

+ Takes tremendous care of the ball, not forcing throws into tight windows or putting it up for grabs, which led to a turnover-worthy rate of a miniscule 1.1% (second-best in the FBS) and just five interceptions these past two seasons across 632 combined pass attempts.

+ Keeps his eyes up and can deliver the ball in a lot of different ways outside the pocket, multiple times hitting receivers as the work across the field parallel to him in 2021, when they weren’t quite as successful on schedule.

+ Even on the run, he doesn’t force throws, yet can deliver the ball pretty accurately without having his feet set.

+ Hendon Hooker can also bob and weave inside the pocket with sudden movements to get to those open creases, to release the ball from.

+ Very elusive as a runner, often times splitting defenders and making guys miss, but more so it’s his ability to bounce off hits and stay alive. Forced 121 missed tackles across 517 career carries and averaged 3.8 yards after contact.

+ Not somebody, who edge defenders can shuffle inside on the mesh-point with or mid-point zone-reads and other option plays against.

+ You see him dip inside of pursuit defenders or cross them over in the open field frequently, in order to rip off bigger gains than drawn up.

+ The Volunteer coaches utilized his talents on the ground on QB lead, sweep and draw plays fairly regularly in 2021, before he really mastered the offense from within the pocket last season.

+ What you really like about him as a designed runner is the suddenness to press the hole and then navigate around the blocker.

Hendon Hooker scout report: Weaknesses

Hendon Hooker #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to pass against the Georgia Bulldogs

– Hendon Hooker worked in the most college-y offense you will find. They were spreading defenses all the way out to the sidelines and created a ton of wide-open targets, as well as often times the receivers to one side just jogging, because the designated receiver was already pre-determined and he needed to read one key.

– Needs to operate with more eye discipline and not stare down his targets, in order to allow floating zone defenders to be led to the ball.

– Once or twice every game, it seems like a throw is totally getting away from Hooker, as he just “arms” it out there as he’s not able to create a solid platform for himself, and in particular those passes went high.

– Simply has to get better at dealing with pressure, which he was only under on 23.6% of his dropbacks last season, yet his completion percentage (51.2%) and yards per attempt (6.1) went down dramatically. Plus he took 27 sacks, where he just padded the ball back there. He seems oblivious to backside slot blitzers if he just works one half of the field.

– Tends to run himself into trouble at times instead of sticking in the pocket (just five passes outside the pocket vs. five scrambles) and is playing with fire to some degree, when he takes big shots as a runner. Just tore his ACL in November and already turned 25 years old in January

Hendon Hooker scout report: Grade

Hendon Hooker #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to pass during the first quarter of a game against the Florida Gators

If you just show some random person the physical dimensions and the statistics Hendon Hooker put up over the last two years, they may say he should go first overall.

There is a lot to like in terms of the pure thrower, the amount of big plays compared to putting the ball at risk and the sudden mobility. Unfortunately, it’s so tough to see that college production translating to the next level and his career pressure-to-sack conversion rate of 30.1% is absurdly high. That number was actually worse when you just look at his time with Tennessee.

I just believe his learning curve will be immense, because of how much the game was simplified for him in that Josh Heupel offense, which simply doesn’t translate to the next level (looking at different variants of these Art Briles-inspired Air Raid systems). The only quarterbacks we’ve seen coming from those have special physical ability to add something on top of their future system.

Hendon Hooker’s skill-set lends itself more to a traditional pocket passing attack. He has no experience making decisions in anything that would resemble what the NFL asks of him there.

To me there’s no way that’s a worthy investment in the first round for a guy I won’t be able to put on the field for his rookie season. He seems to be a very smart, mature young man. So I think there’s enough redeeming qualities to invest in Hendon Hooker in the middle of day two.

Grade: Third round

You might like other 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports: Tyree Wilson (EDGE), Texas Tech; Will Anderson Jr. (EDGE), Alabama; Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Zay Flowers (WR), Boston; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU; Zach Charbonnet (RB), UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.

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