NFL insider says NFC team could draft Hendon Hooker in the middle of the first round
Predicting where Tennessee Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker will be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft is nearly an impossible task. Hooker has several negatives working against him ahead of the draft. He's 25 years old and he suffered a torn ACL last November. There are also questions about the offense that he played in at […]
Predicting where Tennessee Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker will be selected in the 2023 NFL Draft is nearly an impossible task.
Hooker has several negatives working against him ahead of the draft. He's 25 years old and he suffered a torn ACL last November.
There are also questions about the offense that he played in at Tennessee, but those questions seem to come mostly from uninformed analysts and not NFL teams.
Hooker, who last season beat the three SEC quarterbacks projected to be selected ahead of him in the draft (Bryce Young, Will Levis, and Anthony Richardson), has been predicted to land anywhere from early in the first round to late in the second round.
The uncertainty around his ACL recovery will probably be the biggest reason if he falls in the draft. Teams won't know for sure what the timetable for his recovery will be until he's in their offseason program.
ESPN NFL draft insider Matt Miller noted on Friday that a league source told him to watch for the Washington Commanders with the No. 16 pick. It's just a prediction, but predictions from league sources usually come attached with some truth.
From ESPN: Is the "Hendon Hooker in Round 1" talk real? Yes, according to multiple scouts I spoke with this week. One league source even threw out a prediction: The Washington Commanders could take the Tennessee signal-caller at No. 16 overall.
Washington has Sam Howell, a fifth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, on the roster. Howell started one game last season for the Commanders, passing for 169 yards in a win against the Dallas Cowboys. If Washington selects Hooker in the first round, it'll be a sign that they don't have much faith in Howell.
